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Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...

The caps blew because they are decades old, in a high stress application. Once the first one blew the second was way overstressed. AC rated caps are tenuous beasts to begin with. My cousin in the HVAC business says compressor caps should be replaced every 5 years....

I don't doubt that 5 year number for them. I had one to go out after
about that ammount of time on my heat pump. A repair man replaced it
and it took him about 15 minuits to find the problem and replace it for
a cost of about $ 300. I bought one off ebay for less than $ 20. After
about 5 years the capacitor went bad , so I replaced it myself and
ordered another one for about $ 20 to keep as a spare.

He also told me of a relay that often goes bad, so I bought one of
those as a spare for about $ 20. Sofar it has not needed replacing.

If replacing the capacitor , try to stay within the capacitance
range,but you can go to a higher voltage rating. Get one rated for 440
volts if possiable. Also look at the temperature rating. While many
are around 85 deg C see if you can find one rated for about 105 deg C.
Those usually last longer.