Do you pay any attention to Capacitor ‘Life’ ratings?

pricklyrobot

pricklyrobot

Well-known member
I was searching for some electrolytics on Mouser. Generally I just filter by voltage rating and maybe manufacturer, don’t usually worry about tolerance for electrolytics. I just spotted another parameter I’ve never noticed before: Life.
Options for the ones I’m looking at are 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 hour. The ones with the higher hour rating do seem to be the more expensive ones.

I’m gonna keep buying the cheap ones;)
I was just curious if anyone else pays attention to this spec. Or is it not really an issue at the low voltages/currents that we’re dealing with in pedals?
 
The rated life is given at the maximum temperature. For every 10°C decrease, the life expectancy doubles. So if you buy a cap rated for 1000 hours at 105°C, it should be good for 128k hours at 35°C, which is warmer than the typical temp inside a pedal. Basically don't worry about elcap life in low power, low heat devices.

So no, there's no need to recap your 40-year-old Rockman. I did it once and every cap I pulled out measured as good as new (capacitance, ESR etc), so I just stopped wasting my time.

Amps and power supplies are a different story due to heat.
 
Cool, kinda figured it was mostly a non-issue for pedal stuff. Good to have it confirmed by knowledgeable folks 👍

Most of the re-capping stories I’ve read have been on synth DIY forums. People working on vintage synths with on-board power supplies, from the days before wall-warts became ubiquitous.
 
There are some pedals worth recapping. Some manufacturers used 18v rated caps for filtering on 18v pedals(cough, Peavey), while overbuilding every other aspect of the pedal. Ensuring service center business, I suppose?
 
I've never seen an 18v rated elcap in my life. It's either 16V or 25V as far as I've seen.

Now, you can have leaky caps (there was an "electrolyte gate" scandal), and those will corrode traces on the PCB, causing untold grief. This is why I only buy elcaps from well known brands.
 
JTEX said:
I've never seen an 18v rated elcap in my life. It's either 16V or 25V as far as I've seen.

Now, you can have leaky caps (there was an "electrolyte gate" scandal), and those will corrode traces on the PCB, causing untold grief. This is why I only buy elcaps from well known brands.
Click to expand...
My bad.
It was a 10v cap in a 9v pedal. Been a while.
Peavey DSC-2
Was the only through hole component in the whole pedal.
Reminds me, I need to check the other 2 in that series I picked up.
 
I’m buying stuff strictly for new builds.
I generally stick to Panasonic/Nichicon/Rubycon @ 35-63V for electrolytics.

The only piece of “vintage” gear I still own is a Casio CZ-1000, and it does have a wall-wart;)
 
I dont know what else you build but if you get into stacked boards you will want to make sure the caps are no higher than 7mm. The most common size i usually see is 11mmish. Not an issue for most builds. 1590a or stacked need to be shorter. Just something to consider. Most of the time i use low profiles on a lot of things. If you look at the parts list for the ppcb mini electrovibe it will give you links to some and you can go from there. If your interested of course.
 
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