On Aug 18, 5:27*pm, wrote:

... *My primary source
of information iswww.badcaps.net/forum*It would appear you are at
least doubling the MTBF (mean time between failures) by using high
quality caps.

Logically, that should be "at most doubling the MTBF"; remember that
failures can include leaking of corrosive goo and short-circuiting.

It's not surprising that 'badcaps.net' overemphasizes capacitor
quality issues, but my ire is drawn rather to the mechanical design
decisions that put the tiniest available capacitors onto a circuit
board
with zero clearance to adjacent components. An old design
criterion was 'one amp ripple current to one square inch of surface
area' for the purpose of dissipating the inevitable heat buildup.

Empty space is GOOD. Don't minimize it!

To get extra operational margins, it's useful to go to the next larger
size of capacitor (in the case of tight-packed capacitors, that has
to
be longer case sizes, because bigger diameters won't fit). In
theory,
capacitors (like semiconductors and inductors) can benefit from
heatsinking. Has anyone tried it?