DIYbanter - View Single Post - What is the expected lifetime for an electrolytic capacitor?

Andy Cuffe

On 22 Mar 2007 05:17:34 -0700, wrote:

I'm wondering what the expected lifetime is for electrolytic
capacitors in recent years. I'm sure temperature and operating
voltage play a role.

As you said, it depends on a lot of factors. Temp, circuit design and
the quality of the caps are more important. An ESR meter is very
handy in cases like yours. It's not unusual to find a few totally bad
caps when the rest are fine. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of
cases where every last cap is bad.
Andy Cuffe