How to extend the life of their daily driver?
 

So I'm in love with my old Magnavox and I want to extend its life. It gets about 6 hours of play a day.

I've turned down the brightness a tad, but I've also heard of adding a "soft start" circuit to it.

Anything else I can do?

A fan

What kind of set exactly? Tube? Hybrid? Color? Printed circuits?

Edit: oops - I see this is posted in solid state.

At 6 hours a day, that's fairly heavy use at 2000 hrs a year. I'd expect 15-20 years out of it at that rate before the CRT is spent. Just use it and keep your eyes open for a replacement to store in the garage on standby until the time comes. Keeping brightness down is key to longevity too, that's a great move.

Zeno, a small and silent fan could be a good idea. Subtly added to the upper back to help exhaust.

Old_tv_nut, its just a plain jane, 27 inch, 1993 Magnavox. It's very low hours for its age as it was kept in a spare bedroom.

Maxhifi, I've got 5 good spare sets, I just want to see what can be done to extend its life.

I'm using a surge protector, have the brightness turned down. I like the idea of adding a discreet fan in the back. I've heard of the "soft start" circuit which sounds like a built in variac.

Soft start circuits are only beneficial to sets without switch mode power supplies (which %98 of SS sets use) or voltage regulating 60Hz power transformers (70s SS Zeniths, RCAs, Quasars, and some other 70s sets).

Switch mode supplies and regulated transformers, won't start till the voltage is close to normal line voltage (and be strained by low line voltage), and or will regulate away the effect of the soft start.
What tends to kill these the worst is sitting powered off for years.

Would that be a beneficial modification to my non solid state, all tube, sets? I've a 1952 Crosley and a 1964 zenith that I'd like to protect for the future.

I turn them on about once a month, watch an hour or two of tv and then unplug them.

It can't hurt. Though you probably run them enough that the lytics shouldn't need reforming which is probably the main benefit of a soft start. It might prolong the life of the power switch and a handful of other parts a little.

My thoughts on longterm reliability are that you'll eventually run into fusibles going open. They cannot take sustained current, by nature of their function and were often undersized to add a higher safety margin in the 80s-90s gear. The years of thermal cycling also add to them popping.

Then you're left with a dead or partially working set. For the past few years, I've noticed many more fusible resistor links opening. I am convinced it is age related, since there are often no other problems with the equipment once replacing them.

Audio gear...forget it. Yamaha, Optonica, Technics, all the Japanese makes of the 80s used them in droves.