Electrolytic capacitor life-time

[eem2am]

electrolytic capacitor lifetime

**broken link removed**

....the above electrolytic capacitor datasheet says its only got 2000 hours of life.

thats sound terrible...just about 80 days continuous....

if i put one in an offline LED light it won't last 6 months.

Does any reader know if it really is just 2000 hours?, and how i can get round this problem?

 

[vomit]

electrolytic capacitor life

Check at what temperature the 2000hrs is specified. A typical improvement of a factor of 2 for every 10 degrees °C lower can be gained. So if you go 30°C below the specified temperature, you gain a factor of 2^3 = 8.
Check how the end of life is specified. If it is specified as "capacitance has decreased by 10%" and you can live with more, you can also gain lifespan.

 

[VVV]

capacitor lifetime

vomit is right. This is how electrolytic caps are specified. Typical temperatures are 85C and 105C. Usullay the life is 2000 or 3000 hrs at one of the above temperatures. The cap's life doubles for every 10C below that temperature. So for your cap, if the maximum temperature will only be 4C, then you can expect it will last 2^(4.5)*2000=32000 hrs≈5.1 years.
Typcially,products are designed for about 5 years design life. So your cap would make it at 40C, but it would make it at say 45C.

End of life usually means the capacitance has dropped by 20% of its initial value.

One thing to remember is that the initial tolerance is usually 20%, so the initial capacitance could be only 0.8*Crated. At end of life, the capacitance will be 20% lower than that, so Ceol=0.8*0.8*Crated=0.64*Crated.
Products must be designed so that they still meet their specs at end of life, otherwise their life would end sooner. That means that your product has to work with a cap that is only 64% of its value. So make sure you choose the right capacitance initially.