It happens that The Natural Philosopher formulated :
Harry Bloomfield wrote:
John Rumm brought next idea :
Initially this was supposed to be due to a supply of dodgy caps made with
a stolen (but incomplete) electrolyte formula. However the problems seem
to have endured far longer than that alone would explain!

It does seem to be any application in high ripple conditions they seem to
go tits up first. So SMPSUs and voltage regulation applications seem
particularly prone. I always try and replace them with low ESR caps
designed for this application, and with a 10K hours life rather than the
cheaper 2K ones.

I agree entirely...

In the past couple of years, I've had three failures which I've actually
been bothered to repair - all turned out to be failed electrolytic caps.
One the was on the two year old washing machine micro controller board.
Second was sat receiver 13 month old. Third was the PWM speed control for
my cars heater fan, a tiny bi-polar electrolytic in the actual power
switching module.

At one time, when repairing not very old equipment, the electrolytic would
be the last things I would be checking for faults. Now it is the first
thing I look to.

They always are the first thing on old valve equipment, after you have
checked all the valves.

I agree, but this is fairly recent modern equipment.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk