How long do Estop units last?

    Recently had to replace an estop unit in one of our controllers which wasn't a big deal because we had five old used ones sitting in storage but as i went through them one by one, in the whole lot only one of them worked. Are these units one of the first things to go bad? Does the fact that they have sat unused for about 5 years change anything? How many spares should we keep on hand? We have 10 robots right now that have been running for 5+years pretty much daily and I've only had e stop issues maybe twice so I find it odd that the ones that are running seem to have lasted better than those in storage.

    Perhaps storage conditions matter? The ones that turned out bad were all in controllers stored inside an old shipping container behind the building so not directly exposed to the elements but still in more varied temperatures and humidity than those we have running inside the shop.

    Any electrical components with contacts are susceptible to corrosion and then failure due to that corrosion, and yes it is worse when they sit idle for long periods. If the contacts are accessible they can be cleaned, best thing is a regular old pencil eraser, but it is usually easier and cheaper to replace with new. I would keep 5 spares if I had 10 robots if they are critical operations. That being said they rarely go bad in my experience.

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