TommyRandolph Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 hello all i will be selling a pre-amp that has upgraded blackgate caps in it i would estimate 7 years old with maybe 2 hours a week of listeniing on it at most it set idle for at least 2 years, suffice to say i would call it very low hours use.............i actually want to keep the blackgate cap and replace it with a very good jenson but hate to keep it and use it if i can expect it to have a short life from this point forward any thoughts appreciated Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Sargent Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Seems that capacitor life expectancy is one of the great electronic mysteries. I have some 20yr old test equipment full of small electrolytics still working fine. The more those caps are used the better it seems. I suspect this applies to audio caps as well? How long your sparingly used blackgate caps might last, that's just anybody's guess. How can you really know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 I have some caps 30 yrs old,,,working and testing fine,,,I guess the quality of a good cap can be a mysterie... But i also have a light bulb 50 yrs old that still works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 50 year old light bulb? I gotta see that. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Sargent Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Off topic, but I understand there are some early Edison bulbs still working! I had an early Edison bulb 10yrs ago or so and it still worked. It had a hand written serial number in it. I had bought it for a dollar at the fleamarket and when offered $60 from a collector I handed it over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boom3 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Capacitors die from two things: electrical abuse and heat. If your power supply rectifier fails and you get line voltage across a cap, it will fail very quickly. If your caps are persistently in a environment at or above their thermal rating, they will have a short life. Most consumer equipment never exposes caps to these problems, although it is known to happen in vintage tube gear and military electronics which may be exposed to full solar radiation day after day. The electrolytic power supply caps I have seen fail are from rectifier faults, sheer old age (the dielectric does dry out after 60 years or so) or sitting in a hot attic for years at 140 F and above. I have seen very few polymer film types fail over 40 years of this hobby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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