Hey guys,<div></div><div>How do you know when to replace an ignition as a preventative measure? I'm assuming they don't slowly go bad...thinking they just break. Is there a useful life after which you should just replace them to be safe?</div><div></div><div>Tom</div>

Tom, They do deteriorate slowly instead of failing catastrophically. Usually they will start missing a little and then you know it's time to replace it. This has been my experience with the ones from CH. Don't know about the others. Dan.

What is the approximate service life? How long before you noticed the missing? I'm assuming you replaced the plug and checked the battery pack and definitely knew that the ignition was bad.

Bill once told me that CH Ignitions were used for the Atlantic crossing(s), where they ran for many hours straight.

AV8TOR

I've had two get intermittent during the past 16 years and I log 104 hours of flight time each year. That's 1,664 hours of operation with only two failures. The Atlantic flight took 38 hours. I got more than my money's worth. To make things even better, Bill replaced them at a bargain price since they were so old. Dan.

Yeah, I figured they were pretty durable. Nothing the average modeler would need to worry about.

AV8TOR

I've seen many ignitions exceed 4,000 hours of life cycle. Those were all CH or CH derivitives using equal or better components.