Complex electronics is employed frequently in pipe organ actions as well as in digital organs, and if it fails the entire instrument becomes useless.  This is particularly catastrophic for pipe organs in view of their cost.  Written largely at a non-technical level, this article shows that it is probably realistic to expect the consumer grade electronics used for both types of instrument to have a lifetime up to about 20 years.  Although this might sometimes be exceeded, it is the case that too many examples exist where failure occurred earlier.  The malfunctions are explained by referring to the reliability and failure modes of components including transistors, integrated circuits, passive components, power supplies, soldered joints, contacts and connectors.  The failures contribute to premature obsolescence because it is frequently the case that repair is either uneconomic or impossible owing to the unavailability of key components which themselves have become obsolete.  The upshot is that replacement, rather than repair, of the failed electronics will be necessary at a typical five-figure cost in pounds sterling if an otherwise good pipe organ is not to remain silent. A digital organ of the same age would probably be summarily scrapped and replaced by a new one, and a similar figure would likely be involved in many cases.

The fundamental incompatibility between the long life expected of a pipe organ and that of the electronics many of them contain will be noted. In the case of digital organs, regular replacement of the entire instrument seems an inescapable consequence of the decision to purchase one in the first place.