How Long Do Owners Say TCL TVs Usually Last?

TVs. However, TCL (and others like Hisense) seem to be somewhat of an outlier. The real reason why TCL is so cheap has nothing to do with straight-out shoddy materials or apparent cost-cutting. The brand produces most of its components, and because it controls much of its manufacturing, it can easily lower prices as it pleases. TCL is also a solid contender among the best major smart TV brands based on customer satisfaction.

What about the reliability? The website RTINGS.com put 100 TVs through their paces in a three-year accelerated aging test, and of the 10 TCL displays involved, only one failed completely. In particular, its backlight kicked the bucket at the tail-end of the test. Impressive, but how long do TCL TVs last according to owners? This is an important question to ask because the TCL sample size was relatively small in the test, meaning those 10 units may not be indicative of the overall reliability. For reference, LG also had one complete failure and eight partial ones, but its sample size included 24 TVs.

Scouring what owners say online, most report that their TCL kept trucking with no issues for at least three years, with some lasting as long as five years. Though many fall into this particular longevity bracket, there are outliers at the extremes of the spectrum. For instance, one user reported their TCL lasted 10 years, but another reported that their TV died after 18 months.

The experience of being over the place is common with tech. While some owners confirm TCL TVs can last quite a long time (one in particular said his 4.5-year-old TCL was working perfectly without EVER being off), others were unlucky enough to run into duds. A Redditor complained that the screen on his TCL S405 joined the choir invisible after 18 months and warned others that this is a common failure for the model. Another user had a similar experience when the screen on their TCL 6 Series went black in just under a year. They even had a repairman say that this is a common failure point on the particular model.

Those aren't the worst malfunction stories you can read. An unhappy owner argued that the quality control must be questionable because three of their 2019 TVs died after three weeks. If true, this is either an unbelievable streak of bad luck or a problem with older TCLs. At the same time, there are countless reports of "bulletproof" TCLs that worked for over five years, so what gives?

Early failures (and outliers that survived decades) often aren't indicative of the overall reliability. One Redditor explained it best, saying that this is common for high-sales products, where users with bad experiences are more likely to vent their frustration online. This doesn't apply to just TCLs. For instance, LG OLEDs are generally considered robust, but there are still posts about TVs dying after a week. Of course, there are some common issues with TCL TVs, but in many cases, they're something that you can fix by fiddling with the settings. In other words, regular smart TV hiccups that you can experience regardless of the price of your TV.