The results of our latest appliance-reliability survey gives our members' verdict on televisions they'd bought new since January 2004.

Overall, 95% of TVs up to five years old hadn't needed repair.

• Best: Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony
• Average: LG, Sharp, Toshiba
• Worst: Philips, Samsung 

Total number of TVs surveyed: 4733

TV reliability has changed little over the past three years. With 95 percent of TVs never needing repair, they were the most reliable appliance in our survey. Panasonic and Sony have rated tops since 2007 and Philips has been the lowest-ranked brand since 2006 (Philips is no longer making TVs).

There’s been a big change in the type of TV people are buying. In 2004 64 percent of our sample were CRT (cathode ray tube). But CRTs make up only five percent of TVs bought since the beginning of 2007. LCDs account for 74 percent of these newer screens and plasmas make up the sample with 21 percent. We compared the reliability of the three types of screen and found no difference between them.