[sdiy] Lifespan of Electrolytics?

[eric b]

>Usually, electrolytics open up rather than short.

In my experience, filter caps usually short. 
Small coupling caps usually last 30-50 years, 
unless the batch was bad in the first place.

Ask any owner of a Mitsubishi TV set from several years ago--
scores of small electrolytics in those sets go bad (short) at once.
Mitsubishi went to the lowest-cost supplier. 

#1 failure mode in CRT TV sets: the capacitor(s) in the
vertical driver stage. Heat gets them. Typical lifetime
is 25,000 hours, exactly the average lifetime most capacitor
manufacturers warn their customers to expect.

Free advice: electrolytics do not like heat (or cold) at all. 
Electronics generally like the same temperature range that humans do.
So don't store your precious synths in an unheated basement
or a hot attic.




E. Barbour
metasonix