If you pick the right mov power rating it life is very long.
If you pick to low a rating it's as above

less reliable they become

 

The Marvelous MOV. Metal Oxide Varistor. Their most common use in household common devices is likely surge protectors used for protecting electronic equipment. The only problem I see is I "think" the more times a MOV reaches breakdown the less reliable they become. You may wish to think about Snubber Considerations for IGBT Applications. I just see using a snubber type design verse a MOV as more viable. Not to say it is but likely the direction I would look.

Ron

My experience is that when there is a serious transient the MOV goes into a permanent strong conduction mode, and the local TV repair shop had no clues about replacements for them. They would simply clip the failed MOV out and replace the fuse, and next time something else would fail, and they would scrap the set. That place is not around any more, they were a very good source of slightly failed electronic devices.

 

slightly failed

LOVE IT! Like saying "Slightly dead". Still, I know what you mean. Easy fixes. For a while I watched the local want ads where people were giving away lawnmowers that wouldn't start. They wouldn't start because last fall when they put the machine away they didn't drain all the gas out. Come spring the gas had turned to caramel (not the kind you can eat). All you had to do was clean the carburetor and you had a good functioning machine. Got a big lawn tractor that way. Got LOTS of gas powered equipment. My pressure washer - got two of them. One had a blown motor from nobody checking the oil level and the other one had a cracked pump because they didn't drain the water before storing it for winter. Freezing conditions would crack the pump housings and they would be useless.

Someone gave me a TV because it was "Haunted!" Yes, that's what they believed. You could turn it on and 15 minutes later it would shut itself off. So they were glad to get rid of it. I was glad to get it. All I had to do was turn the sleep timer off. No ghosts, just someone who didn't understand the technology of the day. This is back in the 1990's.

Slightly failed. PRICELESS!

 

Tony, Thanks for the response. Fair Radio calls those sorts of items "Used, Repairable", which they define as "Able to be repaired", in other terms, mechanically complete and not destroyed.
My experience with old gas is that the caramel gunk prevents things from rusting in the fuel system, and so preserves them. An example of that was two gasoline lanterns hung up at my grandfathers cottage about 1951. One was lit and ran out of gas, the other had half a tank full. In 1971 we went to use them. The one left with gas in the tank was refilled and after pumping up and two tries it lit and stayed lit. The one run dry was refilled and the rust particles kept clogging the jet, requiring operation of the cleaning needle every few minutes.

 

Nothing lasts forever. Either you're cleaning out rust or old gas gunk.