We still have two vintage Zenith televisions that are in perfect working
condition. The first is a 19" "portable" that was purchased in 1982. The
second, a series 3 25" oak console unit that was purchased in 1983. Both
have seen regular use since they were purchased. No electrical repairs to
either set in the 20+ years we have owned them. We also have a 13" Zenith
System 3 that was purchased in 1987 that is also still working well and has
not seen any repairs either.

Add to that two vintage VCRs (1985 and about 1990) which I've needed to
replace belts on and do minor repairs to the mechanical threading mechanism.
Yes, Zenith made some great stuff in the good old days. As you can see, we
were sold on them and bought nothing else ... a real Zenith family!
Unfortunately, the product went down hill after that and I saw this
firsthand with brothers and sisters TVs purchased in the mid-90's that had
the picture tube problems. At this point we opted for Hitachi, Toshiba, and
Sony products, which also have served us well to date (but only time will
tell).

Bob
"Bill Webb" wrote in message
k.net...
Our family had one since sometime in the '70s, in fact predating me,
that gave us years of trouble-free service. When it finally gave up the
ghost, the picture [when it had a picture--see next sentence] was still
crystal clear. (looking back, it was almost certainly a cold solder
joint, but I was too young to know this or attempt a fix at the time,
and my folks had gotten tired of whacking the TV to get the picture back
:-)