My 13-year-old Pioneer Elite Pro-97 50" rear projection TV finally died an unrepairable death, and since the local trash hauler won't take a TV, I decided to tear it apart and separate the "hazardous materials" from the cabinet. Then the cabinet is just furniture and can be taken away easily.
While taking apart the three-tube gun assembly — where each gun is a small 7" high-power single-color TV tube — to separate the lens assemblies from the CRT, the last "lens" was actually the glass cover for a reservoir containing a clear viscous fluid. Said fluid promptly exited the chamber, and I'm not sure I could have been any more surprised. I was not expecting my TV to drool all over my carpet.
It turns out that this is optical grade ethylene glycol (anti-freeze), and it's used as a coolant for the CRT. These things put out tremendous amounts of heat, and this apparently draws it away from the face of the tube. It also seems to be serving as part of the first lens to focus the beam before the real lenses get it.
There was not one iota of clue that this was a surprise waiting to happen: not in the user's manual, not a label on the tubes, not a mention in the "Be careful around the tubes" stickers right next to the tubes. I don't think I could have been more surprised.
Prestone™ for my TV: who knew?
Your TV didn't have the "No User-Serviceable Parts Inside" warning on it somewhere? (which would eliminate the need to warn you about things inside since according to them, you shouldn't be going inside *grin*)
Posted by: Derek | December 03, 2006 at 04:19 AM
I know you watched a lot of c-span and political news on that TV. Are you sure that it was antifreeze that spilled, not the last election causing it to choke to death on it’s own bile?
Posted by: Marcina | December 03, 2006 at 05:29 PM