From: liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid   
      
   Wu Ming  wrote:   
      
   > Chuck  wrote:   
   > > On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming  >> wrote:   
   > >   
   > >> Hello,   
   > >>   
   > >> Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque   
   > >> fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread   
   > >> for more than one year now.   
   > >>   
   > >> Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute   
   > >> delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.   
   > >> Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to   
   > >> complete.   
   > >>   
   > >> Producer amazingly has a spare “power control board”. But sales   
   > >> ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve.   
   > >>   
   > >> I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at   
   > >> electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.   
   > > Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR   
   > > meter?   
   > >   
   >   
   > What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?   
      
   Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to   
   manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application.   
   Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but   
   the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly   
   ever mentioned..   
      
   A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp   
   could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse   
   currents.  Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could   
   degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed,   
   whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in   
   "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.   
      
   Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an   
   occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start   
   producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the   
   product.  It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,   
   that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would   
   all be retired with fat pensions).   
      
      
   --   
   ~ Liz Tuddenham ~   
   (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)   
   www.poppyrecords.co.uk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)