Quote:
Originally Posted by init4fun
I think the bottom line here is this ;
old capacitors are kinda like old people , some live a perfectly healthy life well into their 90s and some begin to seriously degrade starting in their 60s and don't make 70 . And when those people were young there really was no telling which would see the near century mark VS who'd be worm food by 60 . I'm sure there are those caps that'll live to a ripe old age performing their capacitor duties just fine without missing a beat just as there are plenty of them that are right now going to crap in 5 year old TVs , all the while their antique counterparts are still happily doing the cap thing without a whimper . It's luck of the draw , nothing more , and while I think it's great that those particular caps reformed well and came back to life I don't believe every , or maybe even every other , antique cap can be revived in such manner . As a cool experiment I think it's great that you had success but with the destructive nature of a shorted Ecap in mind I do systematically replace every one in any "daily driver" sets I run , just so that I can feel somewhat comfortable leaving them to run while I do things in other parts of the house without having to keep a literal eye on them 
 I , for one , am hoping to see your experiment run well into the hundreds of hours ..... |
Thanks for the comment. I sort of see that as well: some have a grand old age and others sadly die prematurely.
I think the success for a long life, both in human and electrolytic terms is to recognize the symptoms of disease early and address it. Some prefer milder treatment whereas others go for radical treatment. And continuing the comparison no one know absolutely for sure if the remedy will be effective or not.
The set now appears very healthy and runs well after 50 hours in the last four days. No detectable hum, lots of clean audio and a sharp picture on my good 10BP4. And rechecking the leakage on one of the electrolytics,, it has dropped a further 80% in the last 50 hours.
Again this project is to satisfy my own personal interest in preserving as much originality in the 721TS as possible and should in no way dissuade you from replacing vintage electrolytics in your own equipment if you so desire. And if I were to leave the set unattended I would protect it by other means such as a fuse. But I am happy remain with the set while it is on.