What set will last the longest?

[jbivy]

Just a question i was wondering about. If you had to choose a 40s or 50s b&w set to try and keep working as a daily viewer, for the rest of your life, what brand and model would it be?

Ive read alot and some say admirals were simple and rather sturdy, where others seem to say zenith.

What set would you personally choose as the most durable?

[jr_tech]

Well, I am fond of the early 50s (up to about 55 or so) split chassis Philco TVs. Several reasons:

1) Very simple power supply (no B+ power transformer to worry about, although there is a transformer for the 6.3V tube heaters).
2) Does not use series string tubes.
3) Decent, fairly conservative design.
4) Easy to work on (each chassis is fairly compact and lightweight) CRT stays in the cabinet.
5) One can keep a spare chassis (or more) at hand, easy to swap out.
6) Usually pretty cheap to acquire.

jr

[miniman82]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Well, I am fond of the early 50s (up to about 55 or so) split chassis Philco TVs.

I'm with you on that, but those stupid things have exactly 1 bazillion capacitors in them so getting it to work in the first place can sometimes cost a little. Once I got mine working, it had the best pictuure of any B&W set I've ever seen. Tack sharp, not a hint of noise in that thing.

[old_coot88]

! Dang! Even before reading the second post, I was going to suggest the split-chassis Philco. Even with their original seleniums they were extremely durable and long-lived.

[Zenith26kc20]

I'll go for the 12 inch motorolas with the flyback underneath. I use one every day for news and a movie once and a while. Once I got mine stable it has been a true workhorse.
My Admiral 12X12 has a great picture but I'm still working on the non-linear (horizontal) picture.
I also like the Philco split chassis but I vote for the early one with the power transformer and 5U4's.

[Penthode]

RCA sets using the KCS28 thru KCS40 chassis. These sets are built like a tank and will last forever. I have used a KCS28 chassis RCA as a daily viewer since 1969. It has its original picture tube and most of its originl receiving tubes. You do have to replace the 5U4 and 6BG6 every few years and that is about all.

Also, it has all of its original electrolytics and they remain fine.

Terry

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Zenith26kc20

I also like the Philco split chassis but I vote for the early one with the power transformer and 5U4's.

Dang! I forgot that the early split chassis sets had a power transformer (my '51 roundie does)... good solid set! My '53s do not... don't know about '52s.

jr

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

! Dang! Even before reading the second post, I was going to suggest the split-chassis Philco. Even with their original seleniums they were extremely durable and long-lived.

Those were the ones we hated the most. There was no such thing as a quickie-fix on those dogs. The little later Philco with the full power transformer and 5U4 was a lot better set. 1955-56 model years.
I always prefered any set that had keyed AGC, four stages of IF and, of course, a power transformer. All major manufacturers made a set of this type, even in a table model.

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Those were the ones we hated the most. There was no such thing as a quickie-fix on those dogs.

Hmm.. different strokes, different folks i guess. My experience with them was the diametric opposite, even though Philco was not one of our house brands (thus i had no invested reason to tout them). What sort of problems did you have with them?

[Adam]

I like Zenith b/w sets from the late 50s through the early 70s (the years they used the horizontally mounted steel chassis, I think 59-74?) I've been using many of those as daily watchers for years, and find them to give me the least trouble of any sets I've owned. I currently have 9 of them. My '66 19" Zenith remote-controlled steel cabinet set is currently my main bedroom set.

I even had one (a 1961 19" in the metal cabinet) that I got after it had been sitting on the floor of a barn for decades, it was full of dirt and cement dust. It powered right up and worked fine, as found, with original parts. I used it, having done no repairs to it except blowing the dirt out, for months on a regular basis, until the crt got too weak. Since then, I've replaced the crt and recapped it.

[dieseljeep]

[QUOTE=Adam;3014076]I like Zenith b/w sets from the late 50s through the early 70s (the years they used the horizontally mounted steel chassis, I think 59-74?) I've been using many of those as daily watchers for years, and find them to give me the least trouble of any sets I've owned. I currently have 9 of them. My '66 19" Zenith remote-controlled steel cabinet set is currently my main bedroom set.
I think this is the truest statement of any, included on this thread. These sets were state of the art at the time. Many had frame grid IF tubes and the almost indestructable gold video-guard tuner.

[Electronic M]

My 52' split chassis works great with only the doubler caps and diodes replaced (no B+ transformer), and all the papers. The darn thing actually wanted to work with all the original caps, but the deflection circuits were too unstable for a recogniseable picture.

[bgadow]

The early Zeniths were too overbuilt, leading to lots of headaches. By the mid-50s or so they really had their act together, though. I have noticed a lot of very weak crts in pre-60s Zeniths.

I've had good luck with the split-chassis, which is basically like recapping 2 radios. Their later one-piece chassis seemed straightforward, as did most of the mid-50s RCA sets I've looked at.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by bgadow

too overbuilt, leading to lots of headaches.

Seems like plain old parts count should have some bearing on reliability. My 1946 RCA 630TS has 30 tubes. My 1958 Philco Miss America has 18 tubes. I don't know offhand which is better engineered, but the 630TS has more potential failure points.

Phil Nelson

[Dan Starnes]

Knock on wood, my split chassis Philco and my 54 Admiral are what I watch the most. They have been very reliable since I finally got them where I want them.