3 ms·

Over about 50 years, maybe. Put it this way, I've replaced maybe a dozen "bad caps" in equipment in 35 years of repairing high-end musical kit, six of which we

Over about 50 years, maybe. Put it this way, I've replaced maybe a dozen "bad caps" in equipment in 35 years of repairing high-end musical kit, six of which were in one 1970s synthesizer made from very cheap parts. But, I've done very well out of the fashion for "re-capping" equipment because I charge 300 quid before I even start to consider clearing a spot on the bench for stuff that's been "re-capped" before they bring it to me to fix.

Eisenstein 3y ago
Yes, I am aware of the re-capping nonsense. I was noting that caps do not live forever. > The only components that can't sit forever on a shelf
- Gordonjcp 3y ago
  You're never going to find electrolytics that have "gone bad" sitting on a shelf.
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    Define 'gone bad'. They definitely gain ESR.
herio 3y ago
Recapping is mostly nonsense, there are however some devices out there with electrolytic caps that are known to leak. Some old Amiga and Macs have these issues for example. From there it seems to have spread out into a "recap everything" craze that is just silly.
- Gordonjcp 3y ago
  Yeah, exactly, and because it's so popular it's become the "go-to" for any fault - "oh it must be bad caps!" - and then you end up with perfectly good equipment getting ripped apart and cheap shitty Aliexpress electrolytics dropped in to replace perfectly good ones, with lots and lots of really poor soldering, dry joints and lifted pads everywhere. Oh and heaven help any ECOs made to the board, "oh someone had circuit-bent it and added all this blue wire to the back of the board so I took all that off", gawd help us. The real fault is an 0.1μF disc ceramic, one of those little brown ones, that's gone leaky and now thinks it's a 1k resistor. Not that you'd know, with all the other iatrogenic faults the damn thing now has. Awful. Just awful. The "it was circuitbent so I tidied it all up" thing was a Prophet 600 that I had to write off, it was so badly damaged.

Eisenstein 3y ago

Yes, I am aware of the re-capping nonsense. I was noting that caps do not live forever. > The only components that can't sit forever on a shelf

Gordonjcp 3y ago
You're never going to find electrolytics that have "gone bad" sitting on a shelf.
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  Define 'gone bad'. They definitely gain ESR.

herio 3y ago

Recapping is mostly nonsense, there are however some devices out there with electrolytic caps that are known to leak. Some old Amiga and Macs have these issues for example. From there it seems to have spread out into a "recap everything" craze that is just silly.

Gordonjcp 3y ago
Yeah, exactly, and because it's so popular it's become the "go-to" for any fault - "oh it must be bad caps!" - and then you end up with perfectly good equipment getting ripped apart and cheap shitty Aliexpress electrolytics dropped in to replace perfectly good ones, with lots and lots of really poor soldering, dry joints and lifted pads everywhere. Oh and heaven help any ECOs made to the board, "oh someone had circuit-bent it and added all this blue wire to the back of the board so I took all that off", gawd help us. The real fault is an 0.1μF disc ceramic, one of those little brown ones, that's gone leaky and now thinks it's a 1k resistor. Not that you'd know, with all the other iatrogenic faults the damn thing now has. Awful. Just awful. The "it was circuitbent so I tidied it all up" thing was a Prophet 600 that I had to write off, it was so badly damaged.