"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com...
There's a lot of discussion here about the quality and longevity of
electrolytic capacitors, and to read much of it, one would think that
these are the most failure-prone of all electronic components, and that
any piece of equipment you may have around the house (or lab) that uses
them is likely to fail any day now.

I can't really dispute any of this, except to say that this is not my
experience at all.

Three pieces of electronic equipment I use every day: my computer
(motherboard is about 10 years old), my "good" audio equipment (Technics
amplifier, Vector Research tuner, both somewhere between 15-20 years old),
and the receiver I use for sound on my computer (an Allied that I bought
*used* in 1975).

I have other old elecronic stuff that also works fine.

None of these have had any electrolytics fail, so far as I know. So what
gives? Am I just lucky? Did the manufacturers use higher-quality caps than
what's commonly used today? (The motherboard ain't anything special--it's
an Asus, I think, but I do have extra fans in the enclosure.)


--
Found--the gene that causes belief in genetic determinism


Replaced 2 shorted 2200uf / 16v axial caps in a McIntosh 2205 just
yesterday. They were Euro crap - Rodersteins or some such.

To me it just seems that quality rules but is not always predictable. No
doubt McIntosh thought these caps were just fine. 30 years later, the caps
fail - I suspect due to the oxidation / tarnish we often see on Euro metals.

I once worked on a Honeywell (Philips-built) defibrillator on which the fuse
holders were so crusty and blackened with tarnish they wouldn't even conduct
electricity to the fuses they were holding!

I wouldn't want my life depending on that one...

Mark Z.