During my time as an About.com guide, I have talked to several people who have the perception that LCD and plasma TVs are prone to trouble. I'm not sure where this idea came from, but new research from Consumer Reports indicates that it is far from true. The magazine assembles reliability ratings by polling its many subscribers and thus gets a good indication of how products fare in terms of short-term and long-term reliability, and flat screen TVs do well overall.
I've noted several times in this blog that the one area I can't comment on in my product reviews is reliability. That's because I generally only have a month or two (sometimes less) to look items over. Therefore, I find long-term surveys, like those by Consumer Reports, invaluable.
The good news in the magazine's survey is that TVs from most manufacturers have fared well. An article in the March 2010 issue, which focuses on television buying, says only 3 percent of LCD and plasma TVs on average had a serious problem within the first few years. For sets five to six years old, that repair rate rose to only about 10 percent. Not bad.
The magazine also reports that each of the following brands had similarly low repair rates
Mitsubishi and Westinghouse models were rated as more repair-prone.
If you're in the market for a new TV, I suggest picking up the March issue of Consumer Reports. It's a nice supplement to the information you can find on this site, particularly since it has ratings of numerous LCD and plasma TVs broken out into a handy graph you can take to the store with you.
Photo © Consumer Reports
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