Ready NAS 6 Series power issues

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Clammy wrote:

So both power supplies died or started dying while in storage.  I don't know if that speaks to bad quality control or just cheap parts.

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I don't think it speaks to either, I think it speaks to your expectations vs. what the design life is.  They have given you quite a good term of service.  Would you expect the same from a desktop PC?  The NAS is really just a specialized PC.  That the (not manufactured by Netgear) power supply is the only thing wrong actually says a lot that's positive.  That it's a standard sized power supply you can replace also says a lot, as does the fact that the NAS is even up to the task of today's networking environment.

Just like with a living thing, for electronics, every hour is one approaching death.  So the problem didn't start in storage, it started during operation.  It was just at a level that did not halt operation when you retired the units.

Electrolytic capacitors do have a shelf life, and there are a lot of them in a power supply.  Some failure modes of electrolytics are worse when powered off than when powered on.  If an electrolytic has already started to swell in use, opening up a crack through which it can dry out, then the effects of time will be made worse yet, though it probably would have failed in use as well.  This is the most likely scenario.

There are not a lot of other things that can cause damage in storage (assuming proper temperature range, no shocks/vibration, etc.), but vermin is one.  Cockroaches, in particular, are known to eat some types of insulation.  And any organic material (feces or dead insects) can cause a short.