"Tim Williams" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
On Jan 21, 8:43 am, "Tim Williams" wrote:
Besides the electrolytic and bulb, the starter cap is very
failure-prone.

FWIW, of the modest pile of CFLs I autopsied from my own house, 100%
of the failures were from failed heaters.

This may be atypical. I get good service from CFLs running them
without enclosures; the enclosed, base-up fail modes may be different.

I don't know if any do fail specifically due to the start cap -- as you
note, the filament tends to fail first. I haven't measured any of the
caps to see the capacitance loss, but the color change is reason enough.

On the last CFL I autopsied; the electrolytic read a realistic ESR on the
Peak Atlas ESR70, but zero capacitance.

When I double checked with the DSE ESR meter it showed O/C.

On closer inspection, there was a tiny ring of corrosion "fur" round one of
the legs.