An important reason why they do this is because it is easy money and does not require technical knowledge. Since 'everybody knows it improves sound' there's no risk.
Jan
I will turn on all my electronic devices that use electrolytic capacitors once a year for 1 hour (60 minutes) am I doing the right thing to ensure that the electrolytic capacitors do not fail due to lack of use and disuse?
Nope. You are still assuming that the damage caused by each year in a discharged state with a small but progressive loss of electrolyte can be repaired somehow. Re-forming may reduce the likely distortion of sound at moderate power levels - even prolong the failure of the caps. Unfortunately though, just having the gear lie unused and unpowered for around 30 years, is certain to have caused some irreparable damage and loss of capacitance. This will only get worse, so unless perhaps you still have sufficient volume and clarity at low power levels, the only sensible fix will be replacement.
In future, if you were to carry out a power-up procedure more frequently (say, monthly), or better still, just use it regularly, daily even, right from the beginning and brand-new. This late in life though, I suspect that now, the caps won't hold much charge and that the sound quality at decent power levels may become distorted and poor, whatever you try with reforming attempts. Turning up the volume usually reveals problems with caps but that does depend on the speakers and how much power they require in normal use.
Personally, If I didn't have the cash to spend on any new electrolytic caps, I'd disconnect the suspects and measure their capacitance and preferably ESR, then decide what is too far gone and what to do about each cap. Adequate test instruments can also be expensive but Audio is not a cheap hobby and you do need to be precise when assessing the condition of components. A guess just isn't good enough and sometimes you need to borrow equipment and repair or replace components properly otherwise you may wind up with only a stack of broken gear to talk about.
In future, if you were to carry out a power-up procedure more frequently (say, monthly), or better still, just use it regularly, daily even, right from the beginning and brand-new. This late in life though, I suspect that now, the caps won't hold much charge and that the sound quality at decent power levels may become distorted and poor, whatever you try with reforming attempts. Turning up the volume usually reveals problems with caps but that does depend on the speakers and how much power they require in normal use.
Personally, If I didn't have the cash to spend on any new electrolytic caps, I'd disconnect the suspects and measure their capacitance and preferably ESR, then decide what is too far gone and what to do about each cap. Adequate test instruments can also be expensive but Audio is not a cheap hobby and you do need to be precise when assessing the condition of components. A guess just isn't good enough and sometimes you need to borrow equipment and repair or replace components properly otherwise you may wind up with only a stack of broken gear to talk about.
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All you can do is take actions that will help but not guarantee and every 6months may be a better option than 12. That would make sense if caps do have a shelf life of ~2 years but depends on the rate at which they deteriorate. If the makers are correct they wont be much good after 2 years of no use.
All well and good but you need to remember that they and other parts will deteriorate in use - mute point on CRT TV's and other commercial rather than industrial items. Parts are more stressed to keep costs down.
Boy, you are DENSE.
If anything, manufacturers recommend applying voltage slllloooowwwwllllyyyyy, either through current limiting resistors or a variac.
Since you have neither, and don´t plan on getting any, your question becomes nonsensical.
Asking the exact same questions 1000 times will not change that.
Now what will you do with ALL those years it was not done?
Get a Time Machine and travel to the past?
looking for magical solutions.
How would you know?
You stated in post #32:
Ever heard of "too little too late?"
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/too-little-too-late
Reliability issues...My instant solution is to change them for new Nichi chem 105°C types and that´s it. I´ve had some that have retained their charge for over a year. That is near perfect regarding no dielectric loss.