Reed Switch Life Expectancy

Reed Switch life characteristics under different levels of capacitive loading.

Life tests were run on four types of Coto Technology reed switches at four different, increasingly capacitive load levels, and three resistive loads.  The objective was to determine which type of switch is most resistant to welding under simulated application conditions.  The results show that the RI-29 switch offers the best general performance across all loads.  Little evidence of welding was found for any switch at any load; most end-of-life failures were due to misses or excessive static resisitance.