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LCD Monitors with Dead Pixels/Columns for Sale?

Posted by Cliff on from the buying-faulty-equipment-at-a-fair-price dept.

The Other White Meat asks: "I want to put a computer in my kitchen. For space reasons, I want to make it an LCD; a 15" screen would be perfect. This monitor is going to be exposed to harsh conditions (flying food, jumping cats, general mishandling). I don't want to spend so much money on it that if I came home and found it broken that I would be upset by it. I figured there must be plenty of places that will sell LCDs with dead pixels or columns, where I might be able to pick one up in the $50-100 range, but so far I have found nothing. Surely there must be a market for 'Grade B' LCD monitors, for precisely this sort of low life expectancy sort of usage? So fellow readers, can you succeed where Google® has failed, and lead me to the cheapo LCDs?"

3 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Manufacturer? by Spokehedz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why not contact the manufacturers themselves, and asking for some of their 'grade-b' stuff? I'm sure they'll be happy to either tell you to buzz off, or send you oodles of broken monitors for little more than shipping.

    You also might want to look for places that repair them, and other monitors of that nature. Computer shops, in other words.

    Another place might be your local neighborhood TV repair shop. But this might be stretching it a bit, because I've found that most of the shops these days are filled with idiots that wouldn't know the right end of a monitor to look at, let alone fix the innards of it.

    And if that all fails, then goto the junkyard and look in the newer SUV's and Van's for the LCD screens that come in some of them... and hope that the grizzled old guy behind the counter doesn't realize that is worth 500 bucks... And doesn't want you to pay with ass-dollars...

  2. An alternative by Malcolm+Scott · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Instead of buying a B-grade display and expecting it to break every few months, what about buying a standard cheap-ish 15-inch LCD and investing in a decent enclosure?

    I'm sure you'll be able to buy the sort of monitor housings they use at museums and the like, with a thick layer of perspex or glass between the monitor and the outside world. That way, you'd get a decent display, and it would be less likely to break due to people spilling things on it, leaning on it, drawing on it, etc.

    I wish I could point you in the direction of a useful site... anyone know of anywhere you can buy enclosures like this?

  3. eliminate the harsh conditions instead by kurosawdust · · Score: 5, Funny
    This monitor is going to be exposed to harsh conditions (flying food, jumping cats, general mishandling).

    Kill the cats before you cook them - I suffered a few broken LCDs myself before I figured that one out.