Zenith had a collector for leaking coolant. NEC and Mits used gutters for a time. Now we put gutters in set with very slow coolant leaks.
Quality ? VSXX43 series Mits, never been touched, had a broken red CRT board causing ti to go bright red and shutdown. Problem is the customer would turn the set right back on and the condition persisting with the CRT filament still hot and the V sweep not yet started they burnt the living s*it out of the phosphor. Real bad, and they originally didn't really want the red CRT, they said they could live with it. I estimated the set and told them to sell the tube. The repair was simple, so $200 something for the red tube wasn't so bad.
So the people are very happy, until about 3 weeks later (this shop gives a 180 day warranty but it is problem specific). The NEW CRT leaked coolant all over the signal board ! Damn, it was NEW ! Thus the gutters. What's more, in all these sets I've never seen them run low on coolant so as to be noticable or cause CRT damage.
One poster in this forum said it is that the coolant expands over time and I am a believer. I have fely those bellows, or diaphragms bulging under alot of pressure. Perhaps this explains my 1973 Olds having pressure in the radiator after sitting for six months without being started.
Is it worth the time to relieve the pressure in the tubes rather than install a gutter ?
Let's put it this way, I had a new tube leak, so the expansion is probably not caused by use (heat and light) and probably continues slowly. Now I wonder if there's a limit to this phemonenon, that it stops after a certain point. Then one time I had a Zenith that had porosity of the coolant chamber housing itself.
Gutters are fugly and I don't like doing it, forget about lead dress, airflow is usually affected so it is not a perfect solution. I know an ASC wouldn't usually install gutters when the product is under warranty, and I happen to know of a shop that probably would NEVER do it. I worked there and their attitude was "look at the name on the set, do you want to put YOUR name on the set ?". What's more, if I got a brand new CRT/chamber assy from the manufacturer, if I noticed a bulging bellows and releived the pressure, I might void the warranty.
Damnned if you do, damnned if you don't and damnned if you choose not to decide. I guess that's the new rule.
JURB