Home & Electronic Repair & One Plethora Of A Capital Find!!!

[luxy1205]

Tolivac

Thanks!!1 I love all old radios and clocks, but I do have a special soft spot for those Zeniths!!! Yes, they were made to last!!! I agree!!! I read that when all radio/clock companies were changing their tube cases from metal to circuit boards, Zenith was the only one that wouldn't budge! They refused to change to a "lesser material". Due to changing tubes often they said the boards would break down, so they stayed with their metal chassis until the dawn of the transistors then they switched to the circuit boards. Even some of Zenith's early transistor radios they were completely hand wired with socketed transistors. Hence, why most Zenith radios to this day still work!!! I have a Zenith table top radio that was made in 1952, metal chassis, bake lite (rough shape), and still works!!! Love the Zeniths!!! I have a Zenith stereo console from mid sixties, the 1952 bake lite table top radio, a 1970's Zenith Royal 13 pocket transistor, a 1973 solid state table top radio that I use almost everyday, the 1970's AM/FM table top Zenith mentioned above, and a mid 1970's Zenith FM/AM clock radio circle of sound with red digital numbers (same model my parents had when I was a kid), and I have a Zenith Consoltone from the 60's I would say (needs filter cap then it'll work). BTW, love the circle of sound concept!!! Love the funnel speaker sound!!! Good idea and works great!!! I use my Zeniths everyday! Also, I use a late 60's GE clock radio that is literally on the verge of being transistor! We put a photo cell and led in him so he lights up bright, but goes off when it's light out (changed from his always on light, don't want my house to burn down)! Ha ha! He works great!!! -Michelle

 

[tolivac]

Not only Zenith Radios-but their TV's esp the older tubed ones-were built to run and last a long time.My Mom used to have a Zenith table model TV that was in a metal case.Had a power transformer-no series strung tubes in this one-and the tubes were run VERY conservative.Only thing I did to the TV was clean its tuner.Thats it-when she traded it in towards an RCA color set sometime in the 70's the Zenith still worked.When my Mom and Dad first bought the Zenith set-it was in the living room and only THEY could watch it at the time.Us kids had the Hoffman in the basement.It had a hideious green colored screen phosphor in its tube.Surprized it didn't hurt our eyes.Watched many Mickey Mouse,Lassie,Three Stooges,Sky King,Whirlybirds,and many other shows on that Hoffman.If there was a special show on to watch we got to watch with Mom and Dad on the Zenith-its monochrome screen was so much better than that Hoffman!The Hoffman was in a floor mount wood case.Also liked seeing the tubes glow in the back!And--loved the smell of the warm wood heated by the tubes!

 

[arh1953]

I love my Zeniths!! None of them are tubed models, but they all rock. Our first TV set was a wood cabinet 1952 Philco on an ugly swivel table. It came down here in 1961, was replace around 1964 by a dual speaker Philco black&white console, which Daddy put a tubed UHF receiver on in 1965. It was replaced in '73 or so with a GE black & white console. THAT was replaced in '78 with a Zenith Chromacolor in a metal case, on a plastic Danish swivel base, no remote. '84 they got a Zenith color console with remote. When that got to the point where you had to turn it on and let it decide to work, Mom got a '96 RCA stereo TV console, which I still have. It has convergence, saturated with reds. 

 

[cb123]

The oldies were the goodies!

But the new ones' are not so good.

 I think in 1992, Goldstar bought out Zenith, after that -- They put out nothing but cheap CRT's! You know why they did this?.....BECAUSE THEY WERE CHEAP!!!....THAT'S WHY!!!


<span style="font-family: impact,chicago;">IT MAKES</span> <span style="font-family: impact,chicago;">ME . . . . .</span>

<span style="font-family: Impact;">! ! ! ! !</span>


 


 


 

 

[luxy1205]

Calem

I concur! New TV's are crap!!! We got a 42" (I believe) Toshiba flat screen led for a Christmas present last year and not even 4 months later it has lines on the screen! We tried getting it fixed because of warranty but they jacked my sister-in-law and us around so much that we decided to just deal with it! Once it dies, we'll take it apart and fix the problem, but shouldn't have to!!! I want to get a Philco Predicta!!! That's true stylin' and profilin'!!! -Michelle

 

[arh1953]

I bought one new Zenith color set, 13 inch, cost me $330 in 1987! When the picture started getting dim, I picked up the identical set in Goodwill for $15. My prize is a Zenith stereo 19 inch, $45, and a $10 '79 Computer Controlled Space Command. Any TVs I have not identified by year were made before 1992. 

 

[cb123]

Michelle, I really don't know, anymore! They make those China circuit boards so very cheap, nowadays, that if you even attempt to repair it, it would most probably burn the traces when you touch a soldering gun to it. Those traitorous companies immigrate to foreign soil, so as they can make the cheapest, most toxic lead solder on earth, perhaps even in all of the cosmos! I'm not even going to begin to talk about the plastic cabinets hot glued together....Well, I will, and I can describe it all in three short words...CHEAP...CHEAP... and a whole lot more CHEAP!!! I think if you find yourself forced to fix something like that, you will most likely have to unplug the board and replace it with a brand new one. Now, we can all hold hands together and say in unison, " Thank you brave new money loving cheapo crapo world!"

 

[tolivac]

And come to think of it Zenith USED to have a factory that made radios and TV components in Soux Falls, South Dakota.They were a good employer there-it was closed down when the bad happened.The later sets--------Esp the China ones---MAKE GREAT TARGETS!!!!!Blasted a couple with my shotgun loaded with BRI slugs.The shotgun makes a GREAT repair tool for those horrible sets!The blast was done at a range where the remains was cleaned up.WAS FUN!!!And felt better after NOT having to repair those HORRIBLE TV's!!!!They were in those stupid looking PLASTIC cabinets as well.The slug blasted out the back!We can only hark back to the good old days when Zenith was a RESPECTED brand for Radios,TVs,and Hi-Fi equipment.

 

[luxy1205]

Calem

Here's a perfect scenario that we went thru with a pos vacuum! I few years ago I HAD to buy a new vacuum, because I only had one (wasn't collecting then). It was of course, a day before Christmas Eve and my parents were coming over to spend the night. So, I went to town and bought a new Dirt Devil upright piece of crap that I paid like $55 for. I thought that was outrageous! Anyways, the vacuum that I was replacing was a plastic upright Bissell that I literally got out of the garbage! My husband cleaned it all up and we got new bags for it. I used and abused that thing for like 5 years!!! For being a plastic vacuum, it sure held up well!!! It finally gave up its ghost and the bottom tray part with the little wheels just busted off and literally the bottom fell out! Pun intended! So, after I bought this Dirt Devil I said "Hey I'm going to show love for this one and carry it instead of wheeling it around all the time". That didn't get me very far! In less than 2 months I want to say, the back wheel came off!!! My husband fixed it and awhile later, the wheel snapped off!!! So, he fixed it again, by melting and remaking the darn piece and it's about ready to fail again! Besides that, the stupid plastic on off toe push button broke off! Now this is the point about cheap! The vacuum isn't even designed to come apart!!!!!!! He managed to get it all apart to put in a toggle switch because at that point I realized what's the point, I just want to vacuum, don't care what it looks like! As of last week, the Dirt Devil has decided that it's not going to pick up anything and I changed it's bag! I put it to the side and decided to try out my Olympia 1401-B named "Ollie". I've only used him for dusting never with a PN before! He works better than the new Dirt Devil!!!!!! That's pretty sad when something older than me works better than something new!!!! Anyways, the whole point to this story was that the TVs glued together are the same as the stupid vacuum that's glued together, all CRAP!!!! My husband and I had a conversation the other day about that nothing new will probably be a collector's item. I know people have said that same thing about every era, but I believe it's true now! Everything people buy new now, ends up in the landfill in about a years time! I wish we all could just have well made American products, when people took pride in their job and their work!!! -Michelle

 

[cb123]

That's so spot-on! Today's so called claptrap, hokum garbage is only meant to twaddle away in the contemporary rubbish heap of modern day regressive...I mean progressive technology!

 The only thing innovative about what the techno illusionists are doing, nowadays, is making peoples hard earned money disappear, and without a solitary thing to show for it!

 The sad thing is, you have a generation, which for the most part hasn't the foggiest notion about quality, craftsmanship, durability! These words now, for the most part only mean, maybe a year, perhaps two. When in the not so distant past these same words meant ten, twenty, thirty years, and when it did finally break, it could be easily fixed, because that is what it was designed to do - to be fixed. However, modern day trash is designed to fail - made for a throwaway society, hooked on poor quality....just for this simply reason: They don't know any better. The only thing I can tell, as far as the eye can see: Is if Americans continue to purchase cheap trash, corporations will continue to outsource their companies elsewhere, just because they will have no incentive to do any better. As always cash is a big incentive! If enough quality products are purchased, then companies will continue to make them available...if not...nothing but trash! It's all in the numbers as the tycoons say. 

 

[super-sweeper]

Meanwhile, In Florida: The 1986 KTV set continues to soldier on with beautiful color!

No, that TV sure isn't a blur, it's my NEW Kodak camera! Not too bad of a digital camera, though!

 

[cb123]

I'm just going to keep an eye out for a Philco Predicta, where the future is now!