Cool Zenith Tv

[jstout66]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=3638 But if you want a laugh, read the description. They are afraid to plug it in because "today's electricity might be too powerful and cause damage" What the hell????

[rca2000]

This just shows how little the average preson today, male or female, knows about electricity. Some people even think the big, high tension towers for power transmission only carry 120 volts. And, most have no clue as to how electronic items work.I have even had a couple of guys tell me" the light bulb in my picture tube(not LCD panel) is blown. Can you replace it?"!!What a joke!!

True, plugging an old set in MIGHT not be a good idea, without checking it first, BUT NOT BECAUSE "TODAYS" POWER IS ANY MORE "POWERFUL" THAN THAT of 40+YEARS AGO. How funny!!!!!!!

[Rob]

That's a very nice retro piece. Too bad it isn't a porthole set, but then I'd want it.

[Eric H]

This one is back again

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=3638

[jstout66]

I goofed, and submitted a new thread, but check out my post "today's electricity" that goes along with this Zenith posting......

[polaraman]

I have a 1953 model of this set. I watch it every night with modern electricity. The cabinet of mine is plywood with a canvas covering. I bought it because of the different cabinet. Great set!! If it was closer to me I would buy it. This set weighs a ton!

polaraman

[Carmine]

His reasoning makes a little sense when he says this...

I'm afraid if I plug it up, some of the old parts may get damaged.

I suppose better safe than sorry if you're clueless with vintage electronics. I don't quite know what he means with "plug it up"? I can only think of one device in my house that I've ever "plugged-up", and I'd never do something that disrespectful to a TV set (unless it was a Gold Star).

Here's what follows, and it IS quite a laugh...

When you hook it up to todays electricity...it could be too much power coming through and it could cause the tubes to burst & catch on fire or explode.

...Unless he failed to mention it was packed with dynomite?

BTW, it is a cool looking set.

[Sandy G]

Boys, boys, boys...Don't you know tubes explode & catch fire all the time ?!? C'mon...Didn't any of you ever watch SciFi flicks back when you were kids ?!? Or "Lost in Space" ? It wasn't a good 'un unless the Jupiter 2's computers blew up at least once, or Maj, West threatened to throttle Dr Smith at least 3 times...THAT'S what Joe Sixpack knows about Toob Electronics... seeing 'em blow to smithereens on TV & movies all the time.-Sandy G.

[drh4683]

I like this line too:
"It is made out of a very heavy cast metal". Another thing- if he is so scared to power it up and he has no clue as to understanding this set then WHY DID HE TAKE THE BACK OFF!!!!! Just a thought.......... Besides, we use 120 volts digital electricity today. So its a good thing he didnt plug it in or it would have burst into flames.

[Jeffhs]

I all but laughed out loud when I read the description of that set on ebay. That sounds like the kind of description I would expect from someone who doesn't know much (or anything) about television or electronics. Apparently the seller falls into that category. I agree, however--the person's claim that "today's electricity may be too much" for a TV made in the fifties is ridiculous to the point of being funny, as is his/her fear that modern electricity "may cause the tubes to burst . . . "

Where the seller got these ideas is beyond me. I have never heard or read such nonsense in my life. The AC line voltage from all electric power companies in the United States was 115 volts in the 1950s (when that Zenith was made) and it still is today. A television set (or anything else powered by electricity) made 50+ years ago will work on today's electricity (to use the ebay seller's phrase) every bit as well as it did on the electricity in homes in its own era.

Doug Harland, drh4683, asked: if the seller knew little or (more likely) nothing about electricity or the inner workings of televisions, why did he take the back off the set in the first place? That's a good question, and he makes a valid point to boot. Television sets (monochrome as well as color), as all of us on this board know, operate with extremely high (read lethal) voltages, especially on the CRT. These voltages can kill in an instant if they surge through the person's heart; however, most television owners do not realize this. There used to be warnings on TVs of 1950s and (probably) earlier vintage against anyone other than qualified television technicians removing the back cover: "WARNING. HIGH VOLTAGE. DO NOT REMOVE THIS BACK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES." (I wrote this in capital letters for emphasis.) This warning was meant to deter the average set owner from removing the fiberboard back of his/her TV and fooling around with things they don't know about or understand, not to mention being shocked (all too often to death) by lethal voltages once the chassis is exposed.

Today's televisions are made so that it is impossible to remove the back cover without special tools available only to qualified service personnel, and the service adjustments, all of which are in on-screen menus on all current sets, are inaccessible to anyone but qualified technicians as well.

In my opinion, this design was implemented fifty years too late. If TV sets had been made this way from the start, many deaths or injuries by severe electric shock (not to mention problems caused by knob-fiddlers messing around with service adjustments) could have been prevented. To prevent the latter problem, set manufacturers should have put solid backs (except, of course, for ventilation holes and/or slots), with no holes for access to the service controls, on them. (Qualified technicians could still get to the service controls by removing the back, of course.) This way, the set owner would have had no access whatsoever to the service adjustments, which in turn would have meant fewer "nuisance" service calls to correct troubles caused by set owners fooling around with adjustments they had no business altering in the first place.

One more thing (as Lt. Columbo on the 1970s NBC-TV crime drama of the same name used to say). This is for Carmine. The phrase "plug it up" means, I think anyhow, to plug a power cord into a wall socket, though I have no idea where the expression itself originated. However, I honestly don't believe it means anything derogatory, disrespectful or vulgar. Again, this is the sort of terminology I would expect from a person who knows little or nothing about electronics. I'd just consider the source and ignore it, if I were you.

[captainmoody]

Heck, When I was doing service calls 20-25 years ago most of our customers knew not to "fool around" in the back of a set whether it was on or off.
The interlock was helpful keeping people safe from most harm, (Those who were curious but knew nothing.)
Those that went past it (cheater cord) generally knew the pitfalls.
I refused to repair any sets without backs or bypassed interlocks that was company policy.
As far as service controls, If someone "fiddled" with them it didn't matter to me, As we still got the 19.95 for the call!
Personally, From a service standpoint I loved having the controls easily accessible at the back. Time was money and the faster and easier it was to do a set up and get on to the next call was fine with me. My favorite was the Motorola "works in a drawer" also called "junk in a drawer" by my boss!
That one was simple to set up, and almost everything could be done from the front of the set.

[Eric H]

Well we do always tell the novices NOT to plug the the old stuff in.

The capacitor "Tubes" can explode. so maybe that is what the seller is talking about.
Of course it has nothing to do with "Modern" electricity but it has everything to do with "Old" parts