How long will Amigas last?

[Plaz]

The main thing that will kill all equipment is the capacitors. They will only last about 25 years (less if you use them a lot). And when they go bad, they cause other things to fry. Replace all the electrolitic caps in your unit (and it's power supply) and run those things past your retirement age.  (All warrantees are off if you get an unprotected power surge the house though)

Plaz

[Plaz]

From my personal experience, it is much better to leave them on 24/7.  Letting them sit or turning them on and off causes failures.

Sitting in less than ideal conditions causes corrosion. Keeping a system always warm and running in such an environment can help stop corrosion problems like in chip sockets.

But at the same time this dries out the caps faster. Caps help regulate voltages. Also switching circuits give a "kick" at startup. Once the kick is in, it's not needed until next startup. So.... long running trusty equipment finally has a loss of power for any number of reasons. You try to power it back on, a switching circuit tries to kick, but shorts out instead because of a dry cap. It now fries many more components long with it. Once again giving rise to the legend of "leave it running". If instead the system had it's worn out components replace ahead of the failure.... it would run for a long long long time despite repeated power cycles.

My experience.... 32 years in equipment repair.

Plaz

[Plaz]

I got a ZX81, ZX Spectrum and C64 that all scoff at your 25yo capacitor limit

 I don't call it a limit, more of an average. Also the size and manufacture has much to do with it.  2200uf cap... 15y maybe.  1uf cap perhaps 35y. Point is, if you want to keep your cool old electronics.... replace those dudes.

My most enjoyable references for component lifespan is in the arcade boxes I repair from the 70's

Plaz