Longevity

[david freeman]

I still have a
humble Fidelity Playmaster which works perfectly.
It records, plays back and rewinds/ fast forwards with no problems. Nothing has been replaced since new in 1966!
Not bad for a cheap and cheerful tape recorder.

[Fidelity Fan]

Originally Posted by Refugee

I reject lap tops on sight because the owners of the pesky things will expect me to provide what appears to be a life time guarantee on the repair.
I always advise that they are BER at that is the most honest thing to do with such unreliable modern items. They are truly BER as soon as there is the slightest thing wrong as they will be back with a faulty screen a week later if you attempt a repair.
They are worse than flat screen TVs.

The problem with laptops is that the CPU cooler soon gets clogged up with dust, causing oveheating and possible damage to solder joints on the mainboard, especially the GPU. Really, they need stripping down ever year and cleaned. It is both fiddly and time consuming and you have to remember where all connections go.

[Fidelity Fan]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

These days, paying a premium for what you would hope to be a better product, turns out to be a disappointing failure. I don't think on the whole there is much difference.

I have found this to be true. I once paid £28 for a top make kettle and the element failed under guarantee. On the other hand I have had a cheap £6 kettle from Wilko for the past 4 years, which has been dropped accidentally several times and still works fine.

Many makes of TV are made by the same company these days and there isn't much to choose from.

[Michael Maurice]

Society in general has brought on the throwaway culture, we’ve hankered for smaller, lighter cheaper products that do everything bar making a cup of tea.

Personally I think the onset started when plastic started to be introduced in the construction of these items.

Compare say a BSR or Garrard turntable from the 60’s to that of say the Philips Charlie deck, two decades later, The Garrard decks from the 60’s can be repaired, in most cases using the original parts, once they’ve been lubricated, the Charlie deck most certainly wont, if you’re lucky enough to find a working one, it probably wont be working for much longer.

Manufacturers are always pandering to the lowest common denominator meaning products have to be cheap.

One other thing that comes into play certainly for mobile phones and cars, is the amount of credit available, making the purchase of new items very attractive.

Discussing cars is generally OT for this forum, but the reason electronics and complex electronics at that were introduced, was primarily to force owners to return the car to a main dealer for any type of repair or service. Even batteries in modern cars have to be paired to the vehicle.

Manufacturers and legislation will never let us go back to ‘the old days’ but in many ways they were better and provided good employment in the aftercare of those products.

[Fidelity Fan]

I agree. If Only I could build a time machine!

[unitaudio]

I own a lot of old hifi and audio equipment. I prefer such items for regular use where possible because when breakdowns occur, they're considerably simpler to rectify than they would be on an equivalent modern item.

These items were built better in the first place and in most cases they work trouble-free for longer periods than the entire service lives of their modern counterparts.

Here's the rub: many such items from decades ago were horrifically expensive when new and I could only afford them once they became unfashionable. Ironically, some of them are now worth considerably more than they cost new.

When I was a kid, I thought old stuff would become cheap and stay cheap. However, now I'm in a situation where I can't afford to part with certain items because I couldn't afford to replace them! You couldn't make it up...

In any case, I don't buy things to sell on even though I know particular things I own could easily be moved on at an outrageous profit. I trust old audio equipment. It's proved it's worth to me time and time again.

Regards,
Paul

[Fidelity Fan]

You do have a point. I remember a time when TVs were so expensive to buy that they had to be rented. My current TV is a Toshiba LCD 32" bought new over 8 years ago for £299. It is made by Vestel. I can't complain as it has never gone wrong. The power supplies can suffer from failed electrolytic capacitors, which is an easy fix. I remember that colour CRTs lasted on average 6 years.

On my recommendation, a relative bought a newer Toshiba set that had LED backlights, also made by Vestel. It only lasted 3 years before some of the backlight LEDs failed. I struggled to replace them. These sets are so flimsy that the screen was cracked putting it back together.

[Michael Maurice]

Originally Posted by Fidelity Fan

On my recommendation, a relative bought a newer Toshiba set that had LED backlights, also made by Vestel. It only lasted 3 years before some of the backlight LEDs failed. I struggled to replace them. These sets are so flimsy that the screen was cracked putting it back together.

It’s precisely because of this that I’ve now virtually stopped repairing TV’s. I may do one or two a month, compared to 15-20 a week on average 10-20 years ago, sometimes per day!

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Fidelity Fan

On my recommendation, a relative bought a newer Toshiba set that had LED backlights, also made by Vestel. It only lasted 3 years before some of the backlight LEDs failed. I struggled to replace them. These sets are so flimsy that the screen was cracked putting it back together.

A story with a positive outcome:
A few weeks ago a neighbour put an LG 32in TV out on the pavement, this is a growing trend round here for unwanted items to be picked up by anyone to make use of, a good thing in my opinion. So, I took the TV in, dried it off and powered it up, result, working TV but very dim picture. I think a problem with back lighting? open it up, check connections, look for duff capacitors, all looks ok , put it back together. Power up, still a dim picture. So go to the just about visible menu( using the included remote!) and find "Factory Reset" Do that, picture restored and good working TV. Seems like the internals had got their knickers in a twist. A day or so later, I went to see the neighbour to offer the TV back: " No, we've bought another, the picture had gone on the old one"
How many sets are getting chucked because owners think of the old days when " the tube's gone" was terminal whereas a bit of button pressing can sometimes restore service?

[emeritus]

A few months ago I replaced the failed LED backight strips in my son's LG TV. I found a you tube video that showed how to do it, and ordered genuine LG replacements from an on-line supplier, and it was relatively straightforward. My son had bought a replacement in the mean time, and he now uses the old one in his bedroom.

The instructions accompanying the replacement LEDs did mention that screen brightness could be adjusted either by adjusting the transmission of the LCD panel or by adjusting the brightness of the backlight, and that for maximum life, it was best not to use the LED backlight on its maximum brightness setting, so I set it to AFAIR 80% , which gave a sufficiently bright picture.

[Fidelity Fan]

Good that something has been saved from landfil. The modern LED TVs are so delicate and great care must be taken not to damage the screen or it's ribbon cable during dismantling and reassembly. Fitting new complete LED strips is a lot easier than replacing individual surface mount LEDs and glueing the lenses back over them.

Was the LG of Vestel manufacture?

[mhennessy]

Perhaps a little OT, but here goes:

Start by turning the backlight to minimum.

If the picture is now too dark, turn up the contrast until you notice the white parts of the picture "crushing". Easiest on a grey sweep, but the hidden testcard W on Freeview will do (look at the dots on the white square). Back down the contrast until this effect has gone away.

If the picture isn't bright enough, then edge the backlight up to taste.

Keeping the backlight as dim as possible not only prolongs the life; it also makes the black parts of the picture as black as possible. I have it at minimum on my Sony - I haven't needed to adjust the contrast.

While you're at it, turn off every single "enhancement" option you can find. Turn them back on one by one to see the individual effect to decided if it's worthwhile. I left everything off, and it looks much better for it. I occasionally put the noise reduction on (at its lowest level) when watching a noisy film transfer, but find the smearing effect annoying...

I got change from £400 for a 40" TV. 23 years ago, the same money got me a 21" TV. I still have the 21" CRT, and it's still in daily use. Will I get 20+ years from the new one? I very much doubt it. Which is why I bought the cheapest I could find from a name brand. And not just on longevity grounds - there's really no point spending more because whatever whizzbangs the more expensive models have, they are still LCDs, with LCD problems.

[Arthur2075]

Ok, how about our dear old wind up Gramophones? My Columbia 117a is not really old by gramophone standards 1926-32ish. Bought from an internet auction site for £85. Motor in good order just requiring some sewing machine oil and a good clean and polish. Plays records bought from various boot sales for very little money. Does not even need any mains power. Visitors to our home marvel at our gramophones as if it’s an unknown technology!

In fact I can find spare parts for these machines quite easily whereby those awful suitcase record players are simply consumable. What makes them worse is seeing them with older company branding, our local supermarket is selling one branded Akai. What an insult to those lovely reel to reel machines of the seventies and sixties which were quality products.

Long live the HMV, Columbia and Gilbert gramophones of the 20th century.

[RojDW48]

I hadn't thought of that! I have a console and a picnic gramophone - still happy to churn out a tune. Our old friend Vera (who is 93) loves to hear a bit of Vera Lynn on the console, and the old Decca picnic comes out in the summer on the patio.

[Fidelity Fan]

Wind up grampophones are a bit before my time. I first became interested in electronics when I was about 10 when I used to collect and repair the 1960s and early 1970s suitcase record players.
Although models with valve amplifiers were my main interest, looking back I was more interested in the mechanical aspect of them. I later found that I was more happier repairing mechanical fauts on VCRs than electronic ones. I now realize that my interest in electronics is not very deep having completed a Higher Diploma in the early 1990s and became very depressed during the course. I am content to have enough knowledge to be able to repair equipment.

LPs have made a comeback in recent years; several supermarkets are selling them. It is more fun to put records on than just listening music through an Ipod. However, records sound better when played through good quality older equipment rather than the badged rubbish on sale in many places.

[suebutcher]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

Did you charge a reasonable rate for the labour and a suitable markup on the fuse? There is another thread about this problem.
I agree attitudes have to change but getting consumers to pay more for an item to have spares and repair services available will not be easy.

I tell people, if it's a simple fault I'll do it, if it's not simple I won't, and as I'm a hobbyist there's no guarantee. Fifty percent of the time it is something simple, it doesn't cost much, and we're both happy. Another item saved from landfill, and a few bucks shaved off our growing foreign debt.

[AC/HL]

That's how I work too. Although C&G qualified, my experience is well out of date now and I do it for interest only.

['LIVEWIRE?']

My certificate, obtained via a course at GTC, Letchworth, Herts., in 1971 is basically the City & Guilds 433 part 1 (I never did take the Part 2 exam). The only other certificates I have are a number issued by Robert Bosch U.K. between 1972 & 189 or 90 for attending and completing various refresher courses on Blaupunkt Car Radios & Stereos during those years, so my experience is also out of date by now. Although I still repair things on a part-time basis, increasingly I feel that it's about time I called it a day.

[Arthur2075]

It’s sad that eventually the skills to look after the older kit will disappear. I doubt if there will be enough younger guys to be able to carry this on. It was the same on our preserved steam railway, we needed the older guys to teach the younger ones, although there is more prestige in driving and firing a Black Five than repairing a broken spring in an HMV 101, but they are still skills that could be lost.

[John10b]

Very true. I’ve always been interested in technical education and apprenticeships, and was a Mentor (not a teacher) as part of my job spec.
It is sad to think that the knowledge will be lost if the next generation isn’t interested in learning about the subject.
My grandson, who has an HNC in Electrical Engineering has asked me to “teach” him about vintage Radios etc, but finding the time to spend with me is proving difficult, with a full time job, new baby etc.
I suppose that’s true for other well meaning folk.
Cheers
John