About a week ago, I was in Lowe’s looking at doorbell switches. They had several reasonably priced switches, most marked with the Heath-Zenith brand name. That sounds familiar, I thought. The logo looked familiar, too.
Well, I finally got around to looking at the HeathCo website, and found this on the history page:
The History of HeathCo
Originating from the Heath Company, best known for designing and marketing electronic kits and controls to the early do-it-yourself market, HeathCo’s foundation is built from over 100 years of finding and applying innovation to develop new products. In the 1980’s, as part of the Zenith Electronics Corporation, Heath began marketing products under the brand name of Heath/Zenith. These two great American brands were both established by offering quality products that are innovative and easy to use.
Since the late 1980’s, intelligent lighting, door chimes, and wireless lighting controls have been the product categories of focus. Today, under the Heath/Zenith brand we offer a broad selection of specialty electrical products built to meet the needs of today’s consumer. Our products are designed to complement any decor and install with ease for even the most inexperienced do-it-yourselfer.
HeathCo LLC is a subsidiary of Duchossois Industries, Inc., a privately owned, diversified, multinational holding company, headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois.
How do you like that?
Larry W2LJ says
Dan,
A few years ago, when we needed one at the W2LJ household, you can guess which brand I bought. In a way, I guess that was my very last Heathkit purchase!
73 de Larry W2LJ
Mike says
Maybe there will be a 21 century HW 101 on the horizon….:)
Elwood Downey says
Back around 1974 I bought an SB104, Heath’s first rig with solid-state finals. It proceeded to blow them out so I drove it to their factory in MI, Benton Harbor as I recall. I was just a kid then but they gave me a red-carpet tour of their factory while they worked on my rig. When they were finished, the tech handed me a screw driver and asked me to short the output while it was Tuning at a full 100W. The rig just shut down gracefully .. no more blown finals. My understanding is the mod they made eventually made it into their SB104A. It was a great rig, and a great company.
Fred says
Silly me! I thought they only sold telephones.
Ron says
Now if the doorbell was a kit then you would have something! ;-)
Debbie K says
Doorbell kits were sold in the late 70’s through early 80’s. I have a T-1089. It has programmable tunes (I think 6 or 8 seasonal sounds) that I now need to relocate a manual for. It was the last kit I ever built from Heathkit.
Dad made our TV (our first COLOUR set), stereo and both us kids got mini motorbikes all from Heathkit. I miss those days!