It's 1956 and you want a color TV

[mattl]

Washers, TVs and Teamsters

Growing up we had 3 TVs. The first was a big boxy Motorola in a mahogany cabinet. It had doors on it with big square filigreed pulls. I can't honestly say I ever saw it working. It was from I guess 1950, a "deal" my uncle got. He was high up in the Teamsters, worked with Jimmy H.. He also got a 'deal" on the first washer my folks had, supposedly "fell off a truck".

About 1958, I was 4, we got a Zenith Portable, 19". it was powder blue and massive with a handle on the top. We got it through the same uncle who had just established the first cable system in upper Michigan. It lasted quite a few years, but in 1968 we went color. We got the TOL Zenith 21" in a massive colonial cabinet this time from a store. Motorized tuning, only two buttons on the top for channel up and channel down. Interestingly they used this same set on Bewitched for a season or two. It was a good set lasted quite a while. In 1970 I got a big 25" Heathkit TV and built it, it too had motorized tuning and it was solid state where the Zenith was tube.

I still have the Heathkit stuck up in an attic, it worked the last time I tried it a decade ago, now it's just a souvenir.

As a side note my mother had lots of interesting story's regarding the Teamsters, she actually was one of Jimmy H's secretaries for a few years before I was born.

 

[paulg]

Admiral woes.

Be glad you didn't buy an early Admiral color vintage 1963 or thereabouts.
They manufactured the flyback using wax that easily melted coupled with paper insulation. The wax melted and oozed out of the TV's bottom. The windings then arced causing some sets to go up in flames - even when turned off!

 

[tolivac]

Flaming Flybacks

Its not really the BRAND of TV that causes the fire-but the insulation used in the deflection yoke and flyback transformer windings.In early flyback transformers and yokes-wax was commonly used for insulation-and it was flammable.I have had an RCA CTC-5 color TV flame up on me-the set was lost from the flame-the flyback caught fire-fortunately it was close to an outside door so I could drag it outside before any damage done.and the pic tube went---BOOM!For a little while I was fixing TV's and when I put in replacement deflection yokes and flyback transformers-made sure the replacements used flameproofed insulation.All new ones did-Thordarson was the most common replacement brand.the cases of TV's going up in flames when shut off were those with remote controls or "instant on" tubed chassis that kept the tube filaments running on reduced voltage when the set was off.A voltasge dropping resistor in the filament voltage line kept the fil voltage down when the set was off-when you turned it on a relay shunted out the resistor and turned on the chassis voltages.The fil resistors sometimes overheated-and caught fire or other components on fire.Again looked for "flameproofed" resistors that didn't catch fire if they overheated.They had a strong enough ceramic coating that contained arcs or didn't burn if the resistor failed.

 

[tolivac]

Worked on TV transmittrers from that era-beautiful devices-veiwing windows in the cabinets so you can see the glowing tubes and mercury vapor rectifier tubes-and the mercury tubes glowed brighter when the station was transmitting a dark picture.Oh those "Chrome and Glass" transmitter days!!Now that display would show wide screen plasma,LCD widescreen sets-and mounted on the wall.And the digital transmitter is a boring looking box with a few meters on the front-and a few dials and switches-no windows-the few tubes it has are inside and you can't see them-since modern transmitting tubes are ceramic-you really can't see the fil glow anymore.

 

[whirlcool]

We had a Zenith 27" color set we bought in 1993 catch fire during the middle of the night. Every few years the set had to have something in the power supply replaced. Then one night our yellow lab woke us up barking her head off. We woke up to find smile half way up the walls from the ceiling down. I ran into the den and saw the set smoldering. I unplugged it and it stopped, but called the fire department as a precaution. They put the set out in the backyard. Funny, it sat there for a few days before I disposed of it and that dog would give it a wide berth when walking around and would occasionally woof at it.
The only damage we had was a scorched wall where the set was.

 

[tolivac]

SCARY-glad your dog saved your life-dogs are more sensitive to smoke-and instinct tells them DANGER!!In later TV-s 90s models-the chassis were no longer tubed-except the pix tube.Usually the power supply was still energized and a component in it failed-causing the set to burn.Pix tubes for sets in that era had Quick heat filaments-that gave you a picture a few seconds after the set was turned on-and sometimes the filament was still on when the set was turned off.Thats why some energy conservation folks were onto TV set builders-the filaments and power supplies drawing power when the TV was "off"glad no serious damage to you or your family-and of course your dog from the smoldering TV.wonder if it was a resistor in the power supply that had to be replaced that would catch fire.In earlier days replaced several of those.In some TV's the resistor served as a fuse--Fusistors they were called.sometimes things got to hot before they blew.and on other early TV's remember the little red button type circuit breaker on the back?on some of those breakers TV repairman or somewhat knowlegeable owners would turn an adjustment on them to reduce the sensitivity.Replacement breakers had fixed values-you couldn't adjust them.this caused set fires too.Had to replace these as well.In those days --TV were fixable-nowadays you look into the back of that LCD or Plasma set and you see a huge circuit board soldered to the sets display device-plasma tube or the LCD screen.These are now difficult to repair.-the set has to go to the factory.Or in some cases the failed set is discarded and the customer is given a new one(under warranty)

 

[whirlcool]

That Zenith set was from the first year after Zenith was sold to Samsung. From day one that thing had power supply problems. They'd fix it and two years later it would shut down again. I thought the set was a lemon. We gave it every chance we could, but after the fire, we'd never buy a Zenith again.
You don't even really see Zenith televisions anymore. The only Zenith products I have seen are the DTV cable boxes.
We once had a Zenith PC from Zenith Data Systems. It was OK. I think it's still around here somewhere.....

 

[petek]

Can't remember if I ever told this story here before or not,, probably, but in regards to Zenith tv's.
Many years back in the 60's or 70's when my dad was still alive and working for Fiberglas he told me of a visit to the Zenith tv factory I think it may have been in Texas? Not sure but anyhoo he came back aghast because all along the assembly line the workers were sitting there assembling the tv components and sets while munching away on chips and snacks and soda pop etc at their stations. Salty fingers and electronic components. He only bought Japanese after that.

 

[whirlcool]

I think the original Zenith television sets were built in Chicago, maybe Franklin Park or Northbrook.
Even though I haven't seen any Zenith televisions in the stores according to their website they are still making televisions under the Zenith name. I think that they are probably just rebadged Samsungs.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

Zenith is LG (Lucky Goldstar) now.

Ken

 

[j2400]

I think I remember Zemith being bought by Goldstar. I remember the articles--the last American TV company going, etc, etc, etc.

It's sad about the loss of quality. Zenith may not have been the zenith...but they were apparently made some very good products once. I read a TV collector who loves the early Zenith sets because they were so well made.

 

[whirlcool]

I can attest to the fact that Zenith did make some great and leading edge products back in the 60's-80's (anyone remember the built in speaker phones and the ZOOM feature?). My parents and a lot of family members swore by Zenith. I thought they had the best pictures until Sony came along. The older sets had nice sold wood cabinets and they were very reliable.

 

[cadman]

Zenith was one of the last, if not the last, companies to build their TV sets with point-to-point wiring. Dead reliable and easy to work on but a lot of assembly labor involved compared to RCA's late 50's printed circuits (which are hell to work on). When Zenith stepped up with their new solid state sets they put a lot of thought (and cost) into it and hit a home run with reliability and picture. Pre-wired bus bars, for lack of a better term, are mounted to steel braces on the rear of the set. Each section (vertical output, audio amp, "zoom" and so forth) are on individual cards that plug into the bus bars along their edges. Should the set ever have a problem, not only can a card be swapped out (and actually repaired if deemed worth the time) but you now have numbered test points in the form of the contacts at all the cards' edges to work from. This at a time when manufacturers were moving to everything on one large board buried under the CRT, and soldered to a perimeter "chassis" which meant dismantling half the thing to get it out to access it (and you'd better have jumpers if you wanted to run the set with the chassis out).

 

[neptunebob]

I once knew an older man who was a volunteer firefighter, who said that in the 60s some Sears TVs would also catch on fire, usually on a Sunday evening. The reason: They had the paper capicitors, and on Sunday, "Gunsmoke" would come on and the first sound was a gun firing. When the gun went off, the TV would instantly catch on fire!

Now, I have to wonder, did any TVs catch on fire when Dr. Smith would start whining, or when Lucy would go "aawwwwwwww"?

 

[tolivac]

Do have recollections opf the quality of Zenith televisions-esp those older tubed ones.they also ran their tubes more conserevitily than other makers-the Zenith TV tubes lasted longer.My mom had a Zemith table model TV-it gave a beautiful monochrome picture.Only time I had to work on it was a noisey tuner.simply opened the machine up-removed and cleaned the tuner and the set was back in operation again.My Mom told me the set still worked when she gave it away after getting an RCA color TV..It was a treat to us kids to watch a show on the Zenith set-our tv was the green screen Hoffman Dad bought second hand-It lurked in the basement for us kids to watch cartoons and such on.Yes the point wiring in the Zeniths was unparralled-early PC boards-esp used with heat producing tubes and their high voltages caused the PC boards to break down-and burn on occasions.I didn't get real familair with Zenith TVs-those were like some of the early Maytag washers-the Zeniths didn't break much.also those early PC board trace cement wasn't very good-the traces lifted easily from soldering-or around tubes from their heat.PC boards worked best with SS parts.they just didn't work well with tubes.And on point wiring the wires can serve as socket "heat sinks" for the tubes-PC traces don't do that well-and they conduct the heat to other parts.
You know-NEVER had a case of a TV breaking down from gunshots,screams and such.with the Horror and Sci-fi movies I used to and still do watch-would the screams from these do it?so far-no.If you keep the volume moderate-screams and shots shouldn't be a problem.If they were imagine the blown speakers in movier theaters!-some theaters did complain of blown subwoofers from a recent Horror movie.Oh yes Maganavox TV-tubed ones like their hi-fi console systems did pretty well.
Well,when TVs went to SS and one or two large PC boards loaded with "house number" transistors and IC's made TV fixing impossible and not worth it.At that point gave up-knew other guys that did as well.One fellow I know instead of fixing TV's is now repairing helicopter and airplane turbine engines.
I can vaguely remember a Zenith plant in Soux Falls SD-they made radios and TV components there.It closed in the late 70's I beleive.