Dumpster finds

[Countryford]

There is this house just up the street from me that the elderly gentlemen passed away about 3-4 months ago. His wife had passed away a couple years prior. They were the neighborhood "cat" people. Who knows how many cats inside and all the strays from the neighborhood outside. You could smell them when passing by. Anyways the house sat empty for a month or so, then someone started cleaning the place up. I guess they were hoarders. About a month ago, we walked by while they were cleaning the back yard up. Didn't see anything interesting at the time, but they wouldn't let me go inside due to the smell. Well anyways this afternoon I drove by on my way to Home Depot. The house had one of those large dumpsters in the front yard. Sticking out of it was this tv. I stopped, no one was home, so I looked in and found a second tv. I pulled both of them out. They both smell like cat piss, so I'll probably just gut them and use the parts from them. The first one is a Zenith and the second one is a Silvertone.

[DaveWM]

That Zenith is a really good set, prob works just fine.

[Electronic M]

Those are nice sets. I wish I could find that kind of stuff in the dumpster.

Shoot, if I can take this form the curb and make it work then you can find a way to make your finds smell better.


If you still can't stand them it would be more humane to let another collector buy them off you VS scrap something that will never be made again. Later (read 60's and up) large screen monochrome sets are fairly scarce.
I have a 20" mini-console Zenith that appears to use the same chassis as yours and works on stock caps(though I had to replace the CRT due to an act of stupidity on my part). Any tube era color Zenith is a rock solid product in my book.

[truetone36]

You can get the smell out. It just takes a bit of work and time. I have a Silvertone just like that one. The white caps on the chassis are most likely bad and I'd replace them before powering the set up. I know this from experience - I powered my set up just after bringing it home and one of those caps went with a loud "BANG"!

[Countryford]

Well if I'm going to try and get them going again, I'll need to figure out how to get the urine smell out. Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Countryford

Well if I'm going to try and get them going again, I'll need to figure out how to get the urine smell out. Any suggestions?

A really hot fire ought to do it.


Seriously, its one of the hardest things to get out because you think you've gotten it out and a few months later it returns. I would say if you think any part of the wood has actually gotten soaked with pee, such as the legs, consider that part a goner. If it's just smelling from being in a house with it, you might have some luck cleaning it.

First, I'd take everything outside and pull the chassis. Mix up a solution of 50/50 water and peroxide with some dish soap and one or two spoons of baking soda. You might want to try something stronger than dish soap, like Pine-sol. Wipe everything down good inside and out. You'll probably need to soak the wood a little to neutralize the smell deep down. Then let it set outside for a few days (it never rains in AZ, it'll be fine). In sunlight would be better. Believe it or not sunlight kills a lot of stuff.

To make sure the smell isn't going to come back, wrap tight in plastic and leave in the garage for a few days-week and see how it smells when you open it. You can try covering it with baking soda before wrapping to help pull out smells and vacuum it clean when opening.

If it smells fine, you're in luck. If not, lighter fluid and a match!

[Jon A.]

Some guy I knew would take in stray cats that would spray all over his house, which he chose to cover up with Febreze. So much for his property value.

[Kamakiri]

Tough call. In this case, you have to look at the sets and decide if they're a good investment of your time. It's the whole opportunity cost thing.....would that time be better invested in other sets rather than breathing in all that cat piss?

I had a Zenith that was almost identical to the one you've got, that was a trash find a couple months ago....but in better shape. In my case, I decided to part it out because I don't have room for a bazillion sets, and frankly it wouldn't have displayed that well anyway. I already have 3 color consoles that I figured my time would be better invested in, so I let discretion be the better part of valor.

Hated to do it, but unless you have a ton of space, you have to make decisions.....

If nothing else, grab the convergence assembly, tubes, and knobs, and send the rest to the trash. I guarantee that convergence assembly will come in handy at some point in the future. If it's soaked that bad with urine, you won't want to make yourself sick handling it and breathing in the noxious ammonia.

[Countryford]

Currently both of the sets are sitting outside. The cabinets aren't anything special. I may just remove the sets and was thinking of making a case out of plexiglass. That way you could see the internal parts.

[DaveWM]

agree, the chassis is a work of art on its own. I have a 8-t-241 that I have out on display. I would take that zenith and try to figure a wood mount for the CRT and controls, leave the rest out in the open.

[VintagePC]

You can buy bottles of an enzyme that is meant to remove the cat urine smell at most pet shops, IIRC.. but that could get pricey.

Also, vinegar may do the trick as well, it was recommended by a professional that was asked about what to do when the cat had an accident on the (leather) couch...

[truetone36]

+1 on the vinegar, the 50/50 peroxide solution and the pine-sol work well also.

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by truetone36

+1 on the vinegar, the 50/50 peroxide solution and the pine-sol work well also.

And yes, putting it in the sun will help.

The urea is what decomposes to produce ammonia, and that is driven by either enzymes (ureases) or heat in the presence of water. I suspect that decomposition is what makes the smell linger so long - you can "wash" the set and the ammonia goes away, but as soon as some water/humidity gets in there it will start to generate more and the smell comes back.

So theoretically, adding water and heating it means it will force the reaction to one side, stink like hell for a bit until all the urea has decomposed and the resulting ammonia evaporated... then the smell should be gone.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by VintagePC

And yes, putting it in the sun will help.

The urea is what decomposes to produce ammonia, and that is driven by either enzymes (ureases) or heat in the presence of water. I suspect that decomposition is what makes the smell linger so long - you can "wash" the set and the ammonia goes away, but as soon as some water/humidity gets in there it will start to generate more and the smell comes back.

So theoretically, adding water and heating it means it will force the reaction to one side, stink like hell for a bit until all the urea has decomposed and the resulting ammonia evaporated... then the smell should be gone.

Ah, the science of removing the smell of cat piss. Everyone, well at least every decent person around here ought to know that. Just check out this recent screenshot from the free ads, and no, I wasn't specifically searching for cats, these results included everything free:

[Electronic M]

Another possibility is putting the cabinets in a large vacuum chamber. Some Taxidermy shops have them and use them to remove moisture from a critter to preserve the whole thing instead of skinning it and stuffing it. Same process is used to de-acidify rare books made with acidic paper(the acids of which tend to dissolve the paper over time thus ruining the book).

If I don't like the smell of something I just smoke my pipe with cherry tobacco by it for a good 45 minutes....By the time I'm done it usually smells like cherry tobacco. I sort of prefer all my stuff have that smell since the old tech that got me started restoring sets smoked cherry pipe tobacco, and a number of sets I had before that had that smell too.