Night Vision Thermal vs Night Vision reliability

[Cshultzy999]

I understand image intensification would inherently be theoretically more reliable/rugged just for the plain and simple fact that it is analog, I don’t think it’s uncommon for a tube to last over 10k hrs, and for that reason I’ve always had somewhat of an affinity for night vision as opposed to thermal. My question is, how reliable would say a bae skeet, Andres TigIR, pot voodo, and even a NOX 35 be compared to say a CNVD-LR, or pvs30? Are you going to see 10k hour runtimes on a milspec thermal?

 

[CTM1]

Not that this answers your question but Max R from N-Vison posted this a couple of years ago.

Thermal devices don't have clearly defined MTBF numbers. There are no known degradation mechanisms except general aging of electronic components and displays, potential degradation of sensor seal, etc. System-level MTBF analysis is a complicated task that rarely brings meaningful results for multi-component electronic systems. Thermals are quite different in this respect from I2 night vision. Will thermals eventually fail? Absolutely, but it's close to impossible to predict when and why it is going to happen. The only way to extend the service life of thermals that I can think of is to keep them in a dry place + re-purge every once in a while to make sure that there is no moisture build-up inside the unit. Electronics and water is not a good combination.