Landfill full of capacitors

Tenson said:
Just as an interesting point, I received a 3year old Behringer DEQ today that needed fixing. One of the issues was a PSU cap that had leaked. rated 25v and had 9v on it for those 3 years constantly. Poor Chinese parts perhaps, or heat from the pretty hot 7805 next to it?
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Could be heat, or it has lots of ripple across it, or both.
 
One of the issues was a PSU cap that had leaked. rated 25v and had 9v on it for those 3 years constantly.
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That's 26000 hours.

If you look at some capacitor datasheets then, for small electrolytics, at their rated voltage and ripple current, the basic lifetime is between 10000 and 30000 hours. These obviously get longer as you reduce the temperature, voltage and current and you can calculate the implications.

IMO it's not really surprising in a cheap bit of kit used continuously to find a failure after 3 years. I would guess the warranty is a year...

(I looked at a couple of http://www.kemet.com/kemet/web/homepage/kechome.nsf/weben/products#lea-ele )

Paul
 
I contacted Lockwood Audio some months ago to ask whether the caps in the GRF's crossovers were overdue for replacement. Lockwood said not to bother, as they'll be fine even though they're 50 years old.

Does this seem likely?

Joe
 
I got the same advice from MB Quart about my big floorstanders.

"Unless something is obviously wrong, leave it alone." was what was said.
 
Joe Petrik said:
I contacted Lockwood Audio some months ago to ask whether the caps in the GRF's crossovers were overdue for replacement. Lockwood said not to bother, as they'll be fine even though they're 50 years old.

Does this seem likely?

Joe
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Yes, and the probable like for like replacement will not be as good as the originals.
 
my caps on my tannoys are over 30 years old , i did not change them but have done internal wiring differently than tannoy,
 
Paul Ranson said:
That's 26000 hours.

If you look at some capacitor datasheets then, for small electrolytics, at their rated voltage and ripple current, the basic lifetime is between 10000 and 30000 hours. These obviously get longer as you reduce the temperature, voltage and current and you can calculate the implications.

IMO it's not really surprising in a cheap bit of kit used continuously to find a failure after 3 years. I would guess the warranty is a year...

(I looked at a couple of http://www.kemet.com/kemet/web/homepage/kechome.nsf/weben/products#lea-ele )

Paul
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Paul, when do you anticipate the capacitors on your ATC 50 active speakers will require replacing?
 
sq225917 said:
Lots of failing caps coming out of China these days.
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In what form?
SMT?

The products i am involved with have the PCA assembled in China and we do see quite a few SMT caps popping clogs early.
Early stages of analysis at the moment but it looks like it may be due to the extra heat required since we all went lead free.
 
Paul, when do you anticipate the capacitors on your ATC 50 active speakers will require replacing?
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I don't know. I hope they will go 10 years without significant degradation.

Compared to NVA or Naim these caps run at higher temperatures and currents.

Paul
 
As Richard appears to suggest, presumably, there is no 10 year period and I assume as these are industry work-horses they will last longer than most comparable speakers before the capacitors need replacing? 20 years?
 
The 10 year period seems to be a Naim thing - a standard recommendation that everything be re-capped if over 10 years old.
 

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