Anyone have any experience with these solenoids?

charlie 1 said:

What is your life expectancy for a solenoid?

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When I look at the way we use them, I have to say it seems to press the design for many solenoids. Most are designed to pull up and release in a fairly short time, Often counted in seconds rather than hours. Some are rated to work when pulled up continous but then that is not working out to be quite true in our use. Since most of us do want a reasonably small solenoid, that rules out some of the really heavy duty ones like on trucks, etc. and backs us down to ones often used in assembly line type automation. We don't need great power or use lots of air. In fact we really like to move just tiny amounts of air and like small solenoids. When I think of life expectancy of solenoids that fit what we like, I don't see them wearing out from use as much as sticking from the way we use them. When we pull them up and leave them for 8-10 hours, it builds a lot of heat. On many of the commercially available solenoids, the heat cuts their life way down. Hard to keep anything lubed well if you are overheating it for 6-8 hours every day.
On a Clippard (EV,EC,ET) solenoid rated for 1 billion plus cycles and using .67 watts of power, I can't even begin to figure a life expectancy. I'm sure it is way, way beyond the time I will be using it. The downside is that if I blunder around and break a 10-32 fitting, I will have to replace it. But then I got a group of ten fittings for under ten dollars so I feel I'm set for life on a solenoid.