Early Zenith 12 & 16" Portholes...?

[M3-SRT8]

Contemplating getting one of these. They come in 12 & 16" CRT sizes, I know.

Which one's are more desirable, the 12 or 16? Which Cabinet or Finish, etc, should I be on the Lookout for?

Any problem areas with these Sets?

Thanks,

LJB

[jpdylon]

Although I love the styling of the zeniths, they are a pain to get working properly. Between vertical problems, yokes failing, crumbling focus coils, had to find flyback transformer and other near impossible to find parts --I tend to stay away from them.

The 16" tubes are almost always dead or near dead and don't pop up often. A 12" CRT would probably be slightly easier to find if you needed a CRT.

[Eric H]

The 12" metal cone tube, 12UP4 i think, is often bad also and almost completely unobtainable.
I agree with Jordan, unless you can test the tube and be sure it's good I'd avoid those sets.

[bgadow]

I have an earlier 10" version; with the 10BP4 you don't have to worry about bad picture tubes too much. My experience: Overly complicated. Lots of bad resistors. It finally did come around, though, and now works pretty well. I think every collection needs a Porthole but just beware of the crt issues before putting down much money.

[Sandy G]

Commander McDonald reportedly HATED television, & wanted nothing to do with it until it got to be "sorted out". Judging from the comments here, he may have been right...Somebody had a YouTube of their restored 1950 Zenith leather-covered set a couple weeks back that sure was neat, though. I've seen several portholes over the years, but usually they're either WAY too expensive, junk, or not for sale. But yeah, I'd like to have one, if for no other reason, but that they're SO "1950" lookin'...(grin)

[M3-SRT8]

So...sounds like nothing but trouble.

Too bad, they do look kool.

LJB

[Carmine]

They also came in a 19" version. Since that is the most radical looking because of its size, that's the version I have.

However, mine is a long way from working because of a missing chassis (recently found though). Therefore I can't comment on reliability.

However the idea of a bad Zenith product, especially of that era, seems odd to me... Metal cone tubes were junk, but everybody used them back then.

[Eric H]

It would probably be hard to find one but a Raytheon Porthole would be a good choice.

The 10DX model is beautiful but a bit of a pain to work on.

I have a Truetone with a Raytheon chassis similar to the 1105 model and it was easy to work on.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I have a Setchell-Carlson or Stromberg-Carlson porthole-type 12" TV waiting for more restoration one of these days.

[radio63]

Originally Posted by M3-SRT8

So...sounds like nothing but trouble.

Too bad, they do look kool.

LJB

Yeah, but if you like those sets, get one! Just be aware of the difficulties you might encounter. They might be a pain to work on but if I liked one of those models, I would not let that stop me from having one in my collection. Good luck!

Gilbert

[classicradios]

I have 2 1950 "Porthole" sets in my collection. They are not a quick fix kind of set, Numerous problems, tons of caps to replace, etc.. It took me about 2 years to work out all the problems and get 2 good working sets. I eventually gave up on the 12UP4 crt's and use 12LP4's in both sets now. I've always had the best luck with the late 40's Admiral sets. Here's a link to my youtube videos on the portholes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATVpoVVuTzs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgp4EtkGSFg

Jim

[John Marinello]

If you find one that appeals to you, then buy it. I think you'll be happy with it. If the set is local, then you can do some preliminary checks to see if the CRT is OK, and also have a peek at the flyback. I would also suggest you find a nice, clean set to start with. There are a lot of "barn find" sets out there, and you could very easily find youself overwhelmed with such a restoration. Zenith portholes usually do quite well on eBay, so at least you'll have the piece of mind that your money & time were well spent. Zeniths use 10" & 12" glass CRTs, along with 12", 16", and 19" metal tubes. The '49 & '50 16" models use the metal 16EP4, and those are the toughest by far to find. I, personally, haven't had any trouble finding a decent metal 16GP4 used in the '51 model, because at the time, that was a very common tube.

Best of luck!!