Capacitor failures how to spot & prevent

[Alan]

So, you ever have those little capacitor buggers go belly-up on you? What do you look for and how do you test caps to make sure they're gonna last?

 

[ohmsweetohm761]

Sure thing! Keep an eye out for bulging tops, any leaks, or changes in ESR. I like to use an ESR meter for testing and check the capacitance while it's under load to ensure it’s reliable.

 

[Petri60]

Usually the caps need to be removed (one pin, at least) to be measurable and that may be hard to do some times. I use then live measuring. The ripple is the most important thing in guitar amplifiers for example. Also, I get direct indication of the whole bunch of the caps at one measurement.