Smokers Pay Big Bucks for Television Repair

Smokers looking for another good reason to quit can add this one to their list -- nicotine residue from cigarettes and cigars is not only harmful to your lungs, but also to the inside of your television.

Anyone who smokes inside their home, and has removed a picture from the wall to find a square of the original paint color knows that cigarette smoke casts a yellow hue on every object in the room, including the TV. But cigarette smoke does more than add a sticky film to the outside of the screen; it causes irreparable damage to the components inside, and this damage is not covered under the television's warranty. Depending on the extent of the damage, getting it repaired can cost big bucks.

I sat down and talked with a good friend of mine, who happens to be a certified television repair technician. While many repairs are made because of worn out or defective parts, lightning strikes, and other elements out of human control, a surprising number are made because of improper care. I will explore some other elements of this factor in another article, but I think it is important to warn smokers of the serious damage they may be doing to their television sets, which with today's technology, often come with hefty price tags.

My friend told me of his most recent repair -- a woman called the shop complaining that her volume went up and down on its own. When he entered her house, he diagnosed the problem immediately; the air was thick with cigarette smoke. Like the tar that builds up on the inside of your lungs, the same tar causes the buttons on your TV to stick. When you turn the volume up on the set, it can continue to rise even when you release the button. At other times, changes in temperature can cause the tar on buttons and the circuits behind them to expand or contract, making your television change channels, or even turn on or off.

Sticking buttons is only one example of damage that cigarette smoke can do to your TV. DLP (or Digital Light Projection) sets and LCD Projection sets are the most prone to the effects of nicotine tar. In a DLP TV, a mercury lamp shines onto millions of tiny mobile mirrors into a light tunnel, much the way you turn a mirror to catch the sun. Depending on whether the mirrors are tilted either toward or away the light source, and to what degree, a pixel on the screen will be seen as white, gray, or black. To add color to the image, the white light from the lamp passes through a translucent spinning color wheel. Cigarette smoke can accumulate on the lamp and the color wheel, making the image look faded and off-color.

In an LCD (or Liquid Crystal Display) projection television, the projector uses a series of mirrors that split the light into red, green, and blue beams. Like the DLP's, LCD projection TV's have a lamp that is prone to discoloration from cigarette smoke, and these light-splitting mirrors can collect residue as well, causing the picture on the screen to have a yellow tint. Both these types of television also have fans that keeps the lamps cool, and cigarette smoke can cause the fan to fail.

If any of these problems occur, the repair procedures can range from simply wiping off a mirror or panel, to replacing expensive parts. For example, during another service call, my friend discovered a Sony TV had been damaged to the extent that the entire optical engine block ( the heart of the TV, and a very costly component) needed to be replaced. But whether the repair is minor or extensive, it is not covered under any warranty. Even having a service technician come to your house to diagnose the problem can cost between $50 and $200 dollars.

So what can smokers do to avoid expensive repairs? The best course of action would be to not smoke inside the house, or at least not in the same room as the television. They should also consider their smoking habits when purchasing a set; plasma televisions, and regular LCD TVs are not as prone to smoke-related damage, although plasmas also use fans to cool the lamp. But since the gas inside the panel is made up of free-flowing ions and electrons, the television is tightly sealed.

On the other hand, the thought of forfeiting your TV's warranty might give you one more reason to quit!