On Saturday, August 25, 2018 at 9:32:35 AM UTC-4, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Fri, 24 Aug 2018 19:06:43 -0700, tabbypurr wrote:

I'd get newer ones if possible. At that age they'll be dead or near to
it. In apps where high ESR is acceptable they last better, but still 40
is 80 human years for lytics.

I've always been of the view that it's excessive heat over long periods
of operation that eventually kills 'lytics. I don't see how them being in
store, albeit for many decades, could render them useless. But we shall
see! I'm currently reforming the NOS ones I have and will report back on
the results in due course.
Fortunately I'm not doing this for any customer; I'm only a hobbyist
working on my own stuff, so can easily afford to be proven wrong in this
if such should turn out to be the case. ;-)


Heat and charge cycles do affect a capacitor's life, but they're not the only factors. Humans who smoke, drink, and do drugs have a shorter life than those who don't, but we all will die eventually.

I've had plenty of electros in stock go off value, become leaky, and go up in ESR just from sitting in a nice quiet bin. I don't install any cap without running through my Z meter, and I will toss an entire lot of caps if one is bad.