Bob Howe wants to know. What was the worst CRT TV to work on and why?

[Glenn P]

I never liked the RBM A823 sets or the Pye 697 because of poor design ( you needed an RBM lead set to get proper access to the boards ) and disappointing performance. The later scan power PCB used in the 697 was a constant source of cracked print and intermittent faults , the CDA video colour board was almost as bad .
The Philips 570 , well that goes without saying , I'm glad I wasn't the only person unimpressed with it's constant picture size changes and poor EHT regulation.

[Glenn P]

There are some corkers there . I'd forgotten about the Thorn 9800 . I'm just going to adjust the focus on this nice Pye 697 ker plunk , well it wasn't too far out anyway shame the green drive has packed up again.

[Glenn P]

You were OK with early 70s sets , but unfortunately many models would simply catch fire when they went wrong and the damage caused could be very unpredictable especially if a previous repairer had put the wrong parts in or made a complete bodge of it. This was a big problem as over current protection was primitive on the older valve sets. The government had to change the law to make the back covers fireproof as so many early valve colour sets were causing house fires through overheating !.

[Nuvistor]

The A823 didn’t have the best picture and access was less than adequate but I didn’t need the extension cables to repair them, never saw a burn up of any major description on them either. We were RBM agents so I saw quite a number.
The 697 chassis, we were Pye agents as well, had a poor design of PSU/timebase section, and the CDA board wasn’t a bad design, the PCB material was the problem, the 691/3 used the same design but different material and they just worked. Someone suggested the material was changed due to BEAB regs.

I never encounter a set that had a dangerous burn up, the fuse gave out or some other components before a fire could start, still there were definitely problems for some owners and unfortunately still are with some domestic electrical appliances, you have thought the makers would have leant by now.

It’s possible the older sets gave trouble in the years after I left the trade.

[Heatercathodeshort]

Preventative maintenance was the key. It didn't take long to rid most popular chassis of all the weak links. Cost was minimal being just a few resistors, presets, boost capacitors, mains filters and occasionally a small mechanical modification.
The customers were more than willing to pay an extra £5 to eliminate possible service calls.
Many of the 'free call out boys' advertising in local papers just wanted a quick lash up, get paid and go. They would rarely respond to call backs and that is where I came in.

I blame most of the cost cutting down to the tin hut outlets. They ended up dictating to the manufacturers how much they were willing to pay for a standard receiver. In the end there was little profit to keep the factories running and pay the staff! John.

[slidertogrid]

I agree with what John says. So long as the design wasn't the problem a lot of sets could be improved no end by doing a bit of preventative work especially if you were well practiced on the chassis .
The later Pye Hybrids get a bit of a slating but we had loads out at the firm I worked for and we did all the common known faults when they came in and they were pretty good afterwards certainly better than some others!
One that sticks in my mind was a CT205 I overhauled and sold to a family friend it went for years without a fault and then when it did eventually break down it was the on off switch which had been replaced in the past so I couldn't blame Pye! One new switch later and it still worked fine. It was an old set by then. The ITT CVC8/9 were the only hybrids we still saw occasionally, Most of the others had gone to poison the soil!
Some of the other sets mentioned here were beyond help. Difficult to work on, bad design - sometimes unsafe and probably not very good performers even from new.
This showed up when they were on display in the showrooms side by side, some models would outperform others no matter how well they were adjusted.
I saw a Tyne recently sold on ebay it looked a more professionally made set than reported and the chassis looked well designed and laid out it looks as if some of the panels were fibreglass so I wonder why some engineers didn't like them ? Maybe because they were not seen that often and were unfamiliar? I can only vaguely remember seeing one, I can't remember the fault which leads me to think it was a quick repair... I would remember if it had been a Ba$***d! (I can still remember the battle with a D/S Murphy with no colour 45 years later!)
We had a few repairers who worked from the back of a clapped out old van advertising in the small ads with just a phone number charging a fortune once they had got in the door. Some of the bodges I saw were beyond belief!
One was infamous for poor repairs, high prices and ignoring the customer when it failed. His 'repair service' had a posh sounding double barrelled name something like Simkins & Foremile... We nicknamed him "Bodgeitt & Scarper".

Rich

[yesnaby]

All these incidents passed me by unfortunately (or fortunately!).

A silly question, but did any transistorised TVs catch fire?

[Welsh Anorak]

Yes - both the Sony 2090/2 series and the Thorn 1615 mono were transistorised, also the Korting solid state colour. I've seen the remains of all of these!.

[Chris55000]

Hi!

EMO, terrible design, appalling build, ghastly picture, poor reliability and a fire risk.

Ah, but is anybody going to admit they've actually GOT one still? – or has that dreaded mains transformer finally taken out the last one that was in existence?!

Anybody got a Service Manual?

Chris Williams

[DangerMan]

Decca CTV25 has to be in this list somewhere, surely.
Big flat chassis across the cabinet beneath the CRT, containing lots of boards, and with a heavy and ungainly EHT tower and lots of wires going everywhere, all just waiting to fall off. Except those to the tube base board which threatened not to do so if you made one false move and dropped the chassis thus removing the tube neck. I never did bust a crt this way but always half expected to do so and I hated them for it.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Chris55000

Hi!

Ah, but is anybody going to admit they've actually GOT one still? – or has that dreaded mains transformer finally taken out the last one that was in existence?!

Anybody got a Service Manual?

Chris Williams

The French E series valves were also hard to source from what I remember from previous posts.