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For the last couple of years, I've been doing a major spring clean of the house/garage/shed/greenhouse and various storage/lockup places that I've accumulated over the years.

Sold a lot of Citadel miniatures from the 1980s.

Anyway, I'm going through old electrical stuff: microwaves, TVs, and half a dozen various PC monitors I've picked up. Maybe this was foolish, But I've removed the plastic casing from them to make them easier to fit into a car boot, as they are pretty bulky. And then I saw warnings about how these things have vacuum units in them. and somebody might have said that if they get pierced or dropped, there could be a bang or explosion, as the scientists amongst you will probably know about air rushing into a vaccuum or something.

Is this a risk? Can these things blow up if dropped or pierced? God Almighty, the last thing I need is shrapnel slicing through my leg.

And are there proper recycling places for these things in Britain? The monitors date from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

Thanks for any advice.

Well it will implode with the possibility of glass flying aboot.

those old monitors are cathode ray tubes and are under vacuum.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
And are there proper recycling places for these things in Britain? The monitors date from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

Your local Council tip should take them, or at least tell you where to take them.

 Desubot wrote:
Well it will implode with the possibility of glass flying aboot.

those old monitors are cathode ray tubes and are under vacuum.

Well, thanks for setting my mind at ease.

I've actually put them in a stout chest, so if they do explode, hopefully, the blast will be contained.

If your flag is accurate. Ring your local tip up our check out you gov site because that should tell you if they take them and they should know the tm dangers about them if any are present.

If they are taken. Most UK tips have a large shipping contanor or so where there dumb old electrical on mass for disposal, recycling etc.

If in doubt, just ask and they will point you to the correct place to send your monitors to the electronic afterlife.

If yiu have old strip lights, they are one to be really careful with as they contain lovely health friendly mercury!

Thr easy way. Just ring your local tip.

beast_gts wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
And are there proper recycling places for these things in Britain? The monitors date from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

Your local Council tip should take them, or at least tell you where to take them.

I'll give them a phone. Thanks. In saying that, my local council is as useful as a trap door on a canoe, so God knows how this will play out...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 jhe90 wrote:
If your flag is accurate. Ring your local tip up our check out you gov site because that should tell you if they take them and they should know the tm dangers about them if any are present.

If they are taken. Most UK tips have a large shipping contanor or so where there dumb old electrical on mass for disposal, recycling etc.

If in doubt, just ask and they will point you to the correct place to send your monitors to the electronic afterlife.

If yiu have old strip lights, they are one to be really careful with as they contain lovely health friendly mercury!

Thanks for the advice. Don't get me started about strip lights. Hated those things.

Got rid of mine years ago. Like you said, they were a health risk.

They are if you eat them?

Or confuse them with a suppository?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They are if you eat them?

Or confuse them with a suppository?

Right now, part of me wishes I were American, so I could stick the monitors in a field, and snipe away at them with a musket or something from a safe distance.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They are if you eat them?

Or confuse them with a suppository?

Right now, part of me wishes I were American, so I could stick the monitors in a field, and snipe away at them with a musket or something from a safe distance.

Tanerite.
Safely away and watch them fly into the skies in little bits!

If you're transporting a boot full of them I'd toss an old blanket over the top just in case one of them does go pop

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
For the last couple of years, I've been doing a major spring clean of the house/garage/shed/greenhouse and various storage/lockup places that I've accumulated over the years.

Sold a lot of Citadel miniatures from the 1980s.

Anyway, I'm going through old electrical stuff: microwaves, TVs, and half a dozen various PC monitors I've picked up. Maybe this was foolish, But I've removed the plastic casing from them to make them easier to fit into a car boot, as they are pretty bulky. And then I saw warnings about how these things have vacuum units in them. and somebody might have said that if they get pierced or dropped, there could be a bang or explosion, as the scientists amongst you will probably know about air rushing into a vaccuum or something.

Is this a risk? Can these things blow up if dropped or pierced? God Almighty, the last thing I need is shrapnel slicing through my leg.

And are there proper recycling places for these things in Britain? The monitors date from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

Thanks for any advice.

Anything is dangerous if you misuse it, dropping it from a motorway bridge for example.

Seriously as long as you take due care and attention when moving it, just like any other electrical item, you are fine. There is a risk of implosion if you mistreat it, but it is leaded glass and was made this specifically so that it is more robust than normal glass to minimise the risk of an accidental implosion. The real hazard is the dust inside which can include heavy metals like cadmium. In the example shown dust from inside is the coating on the inside of the screen which is not healthy to be breathing in - so just don't shoot the damn thing. The second risk is only if you plug it in without the cover on it. The charge at the gun end is very high and give a major electric shock if you touch it. The glass shards themselves are relatively low risk unless you are literally head butting it. As for disposing of it, Producers/Distributors are obligation to recycle, treat and recover old electrical items. This is done, mainly, through Council waste sites free of charge for householders. This was implemented about 12 years ago because of EU regulations arising from the concern of damaging electrical items being thrown into landfills (Fridges and TVs were a key driver).

Your local site should be listed here that will accept them:-

https://www.recycle-more.co.uk/weee-collections

Though it is worth checking with the council's waste department as the times might have changed as the distributer schemes are great for keeping information up to date.

The only real danger with an old monitor like that is dropping it on your foot. You'd need to have a few thousand of similar old electronics before you got to levels of toxicity that were really dangerous. So they're dangerous for the orphans scrabbling around in the recycling dumps of China, not so much for you the person who is getting rid of it.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They are if you eat them?

Or confuse them with a suppository?

There was mercury inside the bulbs. So if you broke one it got out.

Who knows who thought that was a sane idea but hey.

Mercury-vapour lamps are very efficient and offer long life and high-intensity light.

Plus, they were invented in about 1900, and given that schools were still letting children play with elemental mercury in the 1960s, nI don't think anybody cared about the milligrams of mercury in a flourescent tube.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Mercury-vapour lamps are very efficient and offer long life and high-intensity light.

Plus, they were invented in about 1900, and given that schools were still letting children play with elemental mercury in the 1960s, nI don't think anybody cared about the milligrams of mercury in a flourescent tube.

And the fact that world wars were raging and life expectancy was low anyone, I don't too many people bothered about the long-term.

Anyway, I discovered my council has a recycling plant for this, and I'm happy to say I dropped the stuff off there without incident and made it back in one piece.

Thanks for the helpful replies and advice.

We could probably lock this thread now.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Mercury-vapour lamps are very efficient and offer long life and high-intensity light.

Plus, they were invented in about 1900, and given that schools were still letting children play with elemental mercury in the 1960s, nI don't think anybody cared about the milligrams of mercury in a flourescent tube.

And the fact that world wars were raging and life expectancy was low anyone, I don't too many people bothered about the long-term.

Anyway, I discovered my council has a recycling plant for this, and I'm happy to say I dropped the stuff off there without incident and made it back in one piece.

Thanks for the helpful replies and advice.


We could probably lock this thread now.

I must congratulate you on your ability to make me think il never see that on dakka and yet... Old pc monitor questions

I think old monitors are just the right size to act as trebuchet payloads.

Build a trebuchet, unlike a shotgun its actually legal.

Some friends of mine have one in their "front" yard (the back of their house faces the "street" ).



When they built it, most of those trees were saplings. It's about 40 years old.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
For the last couple of years, I've been doing a major spring clean of the house/garage/shed/greenhouse and various storage/lockup places that I've accumulated over the years.

Sold a lot of Citadel miniatures from the 1980s.

Anyway, I'm going through old electrical stuff: microwaves, TVs, and half a dozen various PC monitors I've picked up. Maybe this was foolish, But I've removed the plastic casing from them to make them easier to fit into a car boot, as they are pretty bulky. And then I saw warnings about how these things have vacuum units in them. and somebody might have said that if they get pierced or dropped, there could be a bang or explosion, as the scientists amongst you will probably know about air rushing into a vaccuum or something.

Is this a risk? Can these things blow up if dropped or pierced? God Almighty, the last thing I need is shrapnel slicing through my leg.

And are there proper recycling places for these things in Britain? The monitors date from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

Thanks for any advice.

I think there's a risk of CRT Implosion, these are vaccuum glass tubes with mercury coatings, while flying glass shards can wound you if you get hit, mercury poisoning is a big bad possibility. (but is it enough to kill a person?)

That's a CRT Roundscreen, back then this thing appears in many SciFis even if settings are several hundread years ahead of our time.
What's the biggest CRT display panel ever made? how big is it?

did it have a size of room like this one? Is it possible to do so?

I googled and the biggest commercially available crt TVs were around 45 inch screens and weighed several hundred pounds.

I remember old "flat screen" CRT TVs seems to be heavier. A friend of mine bought a 32inch CRT TV a few years ago (it was desperately cheap) and it weighed around 13 stone (182 pounds / 82kg)

Are old crt monitors dangerous?

Only if they fall on you. Or you eat them.

 chromedog wrote:
Are old crt monitors dangerous?

Only if they fall on you. Or you eat them.

They can also do a number on your back if you are not careful.

I was the guy in charge of maintaining a number of computer labs on campus when we switched from CRTs to LCDs. Dragged a LOT of those hefty guys around, and was glad to see the end of them.