I just had my stereo receiver repaired by a guy working from his basement that is filled with broken TVs and the like he is reparing. I mentioned that I would be in the market soon for an LCD TV and he mentioned that they usually give out after two years, mainly because they are built by the cheapest parts available. He singled out something he called “brown condensers”. Now way back in the 50s when I worked on electronics condensers (now called capacitors, but he called them condensers) they cost a buck and doubtless much cheaper in bulk, so why would anyone save money on them?
Anyway, have people had experience with this and is this guy correct? He did mention a couple of brands (Panasonic and Sharp) that he felt were better.
I’m pretty sure my TV is more than two years old now. Anyway if TVs are routinely crapping out that fast I’m sure there would be some sort of uproar about it.
There was a problem a few years ago with widespread failure of capacitors used in various consumer electronics. We saw this occurring in Dell desktop computers, but the linked article from Wikipedia also mentions LCD monitors. Perhaps this is what he was referring to?
If you are worried about it, you might consider buying an extended warranty.
I believe your source is mistaken about LCD’s lasting only two years. Don’t quote me on this, it’s from memory, and it’s only based on the lamp life, but the figure I remember was 60,000 hours for the LCD’s, and plasmas is something like 30,000-60,000 hours. This is based on some mathematical theory, and perhaps if you’ll google or bing +60,000 hours along with +LCD, you’ll find out the details behind this figure.
Consumer Reports did some reliability reports on LCD’s too, and they are actually doing quite well. Some Sony and Samsung LCD’s have only a 2-3% return rate after, I believe was several years. Dell, was terrible, around 11%. Go on-line at CR or find that issue, and I think you’ll feel much better about your LCD purchase, provided you get the right brand.
If 60,000 hours is correct, that comes to almost 7 years, if your LCD TV is on continuously. I’ve had my 52" Samsung for almost two years now, and love it. Still works as good as the day I bought it (knocks on pixels).
Never said a word about LCD failures. It was about the circuit boards in the TV. The link in Dewey Finn’s post was interesting but the link found there to a more general discussion was fascinating and to some extent confirms what I was told. The other thing the repairman told me was that extended warranties are useless since these companies go out of business and reform regularly. That can’t be true for well-known name brands, though. I was also surprised that it was mainly an issue in computers.
The Consumer Reports issue I mentioned would have covered all parts on the LCD TV’s, since it was rating the entire TV. Only a 2-3% return on many major brands of LCD TV’s after a period of time seems like many are using good parts. CR had Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and quite a few others having that low of a return. Dell, Phillips, and I think Hitachi had some of the worst returns. Maybe they are the ones using the cheap parts.
I included the LCD lamp figure also since it is a major part of LCD’s. Thought it might be of some interest to you, if not, no problem. Also, for those interested in the 60,000 hour figure, I double checked it, and that was the number given on many sites for it.
I work in electronic component sales, and you would be surprised on what people try to save money on. It’s not that they are worried about saving 40¢ on the capacitors in a $800 TV, it’s that they are worried about saving 40¢ on the capacitors in the 11 million TVs that Sharp sold last year. I’ve actually lost business on components that cost about $1/thousand, because someone else offered them for $0.95/thousand.