AG-1980 cap replacement- 1k, 2k, 5k hours?
 

I'm tracking down all the caps I will need to do this, and most of them come in 1000, 2000 or 5000 hour life. The originals were all 1000 as far as I can tell, so I'm thinking at least 2000 hr would be better. The 5000 hr are quite a bit more expensive, are they worth the cost, or overkill? Thanks

The 1000, 2000, & 5000 hour life ratings have specific meanings for reliability folks dealing with things like flight, life safety concerns, and severe environments but pragmatically they have little meaning for most people. The hour rating is based in part on a temperature spec, typically something like 85ºC (or 115ºC) , and doubles for every 10ºC drop. So if you keep the operating temperature at a more reasonable 45ºC (113ºF) the 1000 hours becomes 16,000 hours. (That is 16x the nominal head life.) Note that the AG-1980 was rated to operate in the temp range 5-40ºC (41-104ºF).

I also note that the AG-1980 and AG-1970 service manuals do not show a maintenance 2schedule beyond 5000 hours of use, perhaps implying a Panasonic's notional service life.

The original 1000 hour caps probably lasted 15 years before failures started, and that was mainly driven by a bad SMD electrolyte formula, not the nominal hour rating of the caps (in normal home and intermittent use). In summary 1000 hour caps should give you at least that life, upgrading to 2000 hour would be OK if you want the additional measure of comfort, and 5000 hour if you feel rich. But be sure to verify that they will fit. In some cases the higher ratings may come in a larger physical size.