From: whit3rd@gmail.com   
      
   On Friday, September 1, 2023 at 11:16:16 AM UTC-7, Peter W. wrote:   
   > Note, for the record: When I purchase new caps, they still get tested for   
   ESR and value prior to installation. All of them.    
   >    
   > Now, here I am with a choice: $20 for a high-value, high voltage   
   electrolytic cap. Or, $0 for a NOS one that, although never installed or used,   
   has been sitting in my closet, or $8 for one that has been sitting on some   
   dealer's shelf (properly    
   conditioned, of course) for the last 20 years. I do all that has been   
   suggested in this thread to bring that NOS cap up to proper behavior. Or so I   
   think.    
   >    
   > That cap goes *POOF*, and takes some unobtanium parts with it.    
   >    
   > What have I saved?   
      
   Why would an old stock capacitor fail?   If it was battered, or stored next to   
   the fuming   
   nitric acid, or poor quality to begin with, maybe.   But, if it's just normal   
   aging of   
   non-biased electrolyte, it's NOT gonna fail, just will take an initial hour or   
   three under   
   bias to reform the oxide.   
      
   You've saved, in 98% of the probable cases, the time it takes to look up   
   mechanically   
   and electrically suitable replacements, and the overhead costs of shipping and   
   receiving it.   
      
   The unobtanium parts are fictitious, I won't address nonissues.   
      
   If this were about a production run of 2000 units, with a deadline, and you   
   couldn't take time   
   to evaluate the whole batch, it'd be a different decision.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)