Friends of mine have recently had 2 new TVs go out within 6 months or so of each other. Both were covered by warranty but I wonder if this is somehow a voltage problem. First one was a crt tube type and the tube burned out after
1 1/2 years. Replaced it with an LCD which lasted only 3 months. They live in a small town out in the boonies so I don't know if their power signal may be poor. Any recommendation on how check this? Can electricians measure voltage fluctuations? They don't have a good surge protector or power conditioner but they didn't have one on their old tv for decades so they figured they didn't need one. Are newer tvs more susceptible to voltage irregularities? Anybody have an opinion on the value of a surge protector on a tv? are things like power consoles (like a Belkin PF30 Power Console) worthwhile insurance? SL
There are a lot of poorly made TVs out there. Bad power wouldn't cause the CRT to go bad.
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Consider a "Floating Neutral" ! Can happen on ANY 110/220 grounded Neutral installation. Will cause as much as 220 volts to appear on a normal 110 outlet. This is NOT a line surge, but the end result is the same !!! The most obvious symptom is lights that brighten and dim momentarily as other loads cycle on and off, refrigerators, microwaves, air conditioner, washers but not Dryers (runs on 220) and does not use the Neutral except for the Dryer motor which runs constantly during the drying cycle. Yukio YANO
Or a thousand other things, including just garbage quality TVs to begin with! :) It's unlikely for any power problem to kill a picture tube.
Need more info. Make and model would do for a start.
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"My car doesn't go anymore so it must be a dead engine." :-)
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When you say new tvs, you need to give us the make and model if possible. chances are, the sets weren't much good to begin with, seems the norm these days of disposable electronic consumerism.... SO many people tend to be guided by shiny silvery appearance and low price rather than build quality or brand reputation. Then the chickens come home to roost when the things crap out after the guarantee expires... so then out they go and buy another, new, equally shoddy piece of crap to replace it with!
sorry, rant off now! ;-) no offence intended to the OP, just my pure speculation based on experience....
Plug-in protectors are cheap? Hardly. They cost typically tens of times more money per protected appliance. Since they are missing that short and dedicated earthing wire, then plug-in protectors may even provide a surge with more destructive paths through an adjacent appliance.
We traced path of a surge that damaged networked and powered off computers. Confirmed that path by replacing ICs on the board and restoring all machines. A protector does not stop, block, or absorb surges. It is called a shunt mode device. It shunts - either to earth ground or into adjacent appliances. They simply distribute a surge to all other wires. If one of those wires is not the short connection to earth, then a protector may shunt that surge to earth via a protector.
Effective protectors make the 'less than 10 foot' connection to earth. Protector earths transients that would otherwise overwhelm protection already inside appliances. Any protection that would be effective on that computer power cord is already inside the computer. Protection that remains effective if transients are not permitted inside the building.
They are called 'whole house' protectors. Sold in Home Depot, Lowes, and electronics supply houses are effective products from Square D, Siemens, Cutler-Hammer, Intermatic, Leviton, and GE. Not mentioned are products sold in Radio Shack, Walmart, Sears, Staples, Circuit City, Kmart, or Best Buy. Effective protectors have that dedicated earthing wire to connect protector to protection. Protection is the most critical component in any protection system: earth ground. Just another reason why the home earthing may need be upgraded to post 1990 National Electrical Code requirements.
So where in those numerical specs does the plug-in manufacturer even list each type of transient AND provide numbers for that protection. Notice no mention of protection in their numerical specs. And one would call that cheap? Yes. So cheap to enrich its manufacturer and yet provide no effective protection. It don't hurt the manufacturer. And it also don't claim to provide that protection. Listed is effective protection that costs less money. Defined are ineffective plug-in protectors with hyped names and yet don't even claim to provide protection in their numerical specs.
Insurance with a plug-in protector? You wish. Review details in its warranty. Chock full of exemptions. One even implied that if a surge protector in the building was not manufactured by them, then warranty is void. The list of exemptions like this are numerous. Warranty on a protector only exists when one forgots to read details.
Effective protector makes a 'less than 10 foot' connection to earth. Every homeowner should consider this many times less expensive and so effective solution.
Meanwhile none of this is about low or high voltage. Transients (volts of 10 or 100 times higher) that occur in microseconds have little relationship to voltages that make minor changes in seconds or milliseconds. Solutions to high or low voltages (140 to 90) involve other solutions; other devices. Low voltages must never damage electronics. Appliances must also withstand high voltages such as 140,
170, and 400 without damage depending on time.
Before discussing voltage irregularities, first define each with numbers - voltage and time. A surge protector complete ignores when
120 volts climbs to 200 volts. See its box. Let-through voltage is maybe 330 volts.
Homer J Simps>> conditioner but they didn't have one on their old tv for decades so they
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