Home audio & video forum: How long should a TV last?

My neighbor's is 27 years old. One of mine needed a minor repair and it's now about 20 years old.

My newest is a RP CRT unit which has been repaired twice since 2000. I think the new sets are considered disposable?

One thing is different about me. I'm an old electronics person and know to keep the units clean so that flash over issue shouldn't occur to my units. However how many people would die if they opened up their set to clean it?

Bob

My college days were 20 years later...

But I think you get the general direction the consumer TV market has taken. They are thinking of something less reliable now...

Bob

How spoiled are we.Just look back 30 years You had to be a t.v. repairman just to own one. new tubes every 3 months rip the whole thing apart to clean the cascade tuner, flyback transformer going up in smoke. etc etc. Look at it this way most folks donet even know where the hood releace button is on there new car totally trouble free. same with hi-def t.vs. my old monster d.l.p. set is now almost 2 years old and most cnet folks state that it is a horrible t.v. ,rasinbow effect, color wheel and lamp problems. that may be true, but I have never had a problem and picture quality is still amazing, yes the newer display types plasma, l.c.d. are almost bullit proof. If I have a problem in the next 20 years I will let you know ha steweee

My lack of appreciation for their offer stems form the fact that I didn't pay over $1500 with the expectation that the TV would only make it to the end of the warranty. I expected this TV to last for 10 years or more.

Would you buy another car from a manufacturer whose repairs after the warranty expired were more than the residual value?

I am a longtime Panasonic customer (since my first cassette recorder 37 years ago). I own 2 -VCRs, 1 DVD player, a phone, a boombox, a portable AM/FM cassette player. I expected more utility from the TV than 6 years (with 1 expensive repair already).

Then maybe I'd think twice....

As you stated, you have gotten good life on all the other products. You agreed to buy a set with a one year warranty from the manufacturer. That is all they owe you.

Everything fails eventually and I agree you got the short end of it, but at least they are standing behind the product to keep you as a customer.

I had a similar experience over 20 years ago with Phillips. I bought a Sylvania RP TV and it was a lemon. They repaired it a couple times at no charge and after out of warranty they supplied the parts at no charge but I paid several hundred in repairs. Finally they credited me my entire purchase price toward a new set that they shipped to me. It cost me 400 dollars more for a new, bigger Magnavox set. It is in the corner of my basement, but it still works and has never been repaired.

I was very grateful for the help. They owed me nothing, but stood behind the product. Stick with Panasonic.

stuff happens (to them).

get over it and move on. ANY electronic component can die like that - they all use many of the same compononets - it's the nature of the beast. there's no reason to think the current panasonic televisions will last longer or shorter than most other brands.

most asic failure rates begin to rise around seven years - although this has much to do with power on hours (how much you've had it on) - and how often you turn it on and off (the less the better). anyway, i digress....

besides... you need a REAL (i.e. HD) tv now! just a good excuse to dive in!

Paul, from what you just wrote it looks like Panasonic wasn't stepping up as much as I thought. The way you wrote it originally, it looked like they were doing something more than what their final offer was. But they did still offer you something, which they didn't have to do, so I wasn't totally off base. I do agree with you that our expectations have been lowered on how long the new electronics should last. And that's a shame. You were not wrong in expecting your TV to last at least 10 years. You got a good deal at Sears, and I hope this TV lasts longer than your last one. Panasonic is definitely not a Yugo. By the way, the reason for my reaction was that there have been times that a customer would have a complaint about a product that they had for a long time after the warranty had expired, and after I would talk to the manufacturer they would step up and make a good offer to the customer, and the customers reaction would be, "and what else are you going to do". Customer service has always been very important to me, but sometimes, no matter what you do, it's never enough. Good luck with your new TV, I think you'll be very happy with it.
Kent

If they would have sent you a 2-300 dollar coupon or voucher or even a rebate, that would at least be something. To offer you a set at a higher price (plus shipping) than you can pick up down the street is more an insult to your intelligence.

I have a 50" Panasonic plasma and love it, but my brand loyalty could end with an offer like that.

Similar to what others have mentioned, my parents gave us their 15-year-old Hitachi 19-inch TV, and we kept it another ten years before giving it to charity because it couldn't tune cable channels. I even opened it up and re-soldered the sound card because a cold-solder joint was giving it fuzzy sound.
Now we have a 36-inch CRT TV that has had to be repaired twice in the five years we've had it. According to the crusty old repairman we took it too, the larger the unit, the shorter the lifespan. If you want long life, go low-tech, go modest. It takes more power to run a big unit. More power means more burden on the electronics, more deterioration, more heat, etc. Buy technology that is mature, well broken-in, and fine-tuned. Bleeding edge is just that, bleeding.
As I understand it, the plasmas are expected to last five years. LCDs a little longer. Get yourself a nice 27-inch CRT, and you'll have it a very long time.

I have had fairly bad luck with tv's over the years. My average run is about three years before problems arise that need repair. Some cheaper sets I have had have been as little as a year (fuzzy sound). I had one ancient Sony 13" that needed a tuner cold solder joint repaired, but kept going and going... and a second Sony 20" that had the same thing happen. I gave that to a friend who is still using it on video in, but 10 years later! The last CRT I got was a 24" Sony. It had a fantastic picture, but the picture began to shrink away from the edges after about 3 years. I gave it away (it weighed 100 lbs and there was no way I could move it to get it repaired anyway!) and purchased a Sharp LCD TV. So far that has been working with no problems for 2 years. Plus, I can move it around if I need to.

The moral of the story is, I think if you got six years out of a TV, you should be very happy with it. Take them up on their offer and buy another. Just don't expect it to last more than a few years... and consider yourself lucky if it does.

i don't think they last very long now days. my parents bought a motorola in the early 50's. they used it for several years and gave it to my grandparents. they used it for over 20 years. never had to be serviced. in my adult, t.v. buying years (i am 59 now) i have never had a t.v. last longer than 9 years. that is the one i have now. it is an RCA. i hope to get several more years out of it as t.v.s are expensive, or at least the one i want is. my own personal opinion is t.v's are "throw aways". so many electronics are these days.

Maybe it's not quite that bad but there is some truth in it.
Last week I had a power supply stop working in on of my studio units.
I pulled it out and had a look, I very quickly spotted the bad capacitor in the PS, a 100uf at 200vdc.
I took a catalog and looked up a replacement. I had a choice of 3 different ones by 3 different makers, priced at $2.45, 2.57 and $3.85 each. which one did I get??? Since I didn't want to do this over again I got the $3.85 one, it has the best specs.
Now what if I had to buy hundreds of them and had to keep the price down? Most likely I would get the lower cost one knowing that it would be reliable in my units 95~98% of the time. This means that 2~5% of the units built will have a failure.
As Stew said we grew up it the time that TV repair man came out to fix the set 2~3 times a year.
But as TV sets became solid state(except for the tube) we got use to them lasting a long time.
Back in the 1980's there was very fierce competition between the US and Japanese TV set makers. The Japanese sets had better picture quality and last longer with fewer problems and won. Thus the many stories about 20+ year old TVs still working.
The cost of HDTVs is coming down, mass production will do this, so will using components that cost less(and have a shorter life span), reducing the warranty time or what will be covered and passing this cost on to the end user in the form of an extend warranty.
Yes CRTs can last 15~20 years now by the electronics driving them may not.
So: low price, great free warranty, last a long time, you can have any two but not all 3. John