Why isn't it powering up?

A very simple tip to help improve reliability...

Store your ball bearings flat!

It's as simple as that, store them flat rather than on their sides. Storing them on their sides, like books on a shelf, might look neat but it's not the right thing to do. There is a pretty simple reason for this too. When stored on their ends, the weight, and therefore load, of the rolling elements and inner raceway is generally taken by one or two balls. Factor in background vibrations and this can create small indentations in the raceway in a phenomenon known as false Brinelling. Then, when you call on a bearing for use, it's already been compromised and is likely to fail.

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By storing bearings on their sides, the loading is shared equally between the balls lessening, or totally removing the chance of false brinelling.

It's pretty simple when you know isn't it?

There's more that you can do too. Firstly though, when you look around your stores, explain to your stores manager why you're putting the bearings flat. I do see many storerooms where bearings are stored on their sides. But if you don't know, you don't know.

Check the boxes are sealed too. If not, check the inner sleeve is intact. This is usually a plastic sleeve containing the bearing. If that's not sealed, then there is no way of you knowing the condition of the bearing. I'd scrap it if that's the case.

Finally, for now, and this is relevant for sealed bearings. I mean sealed as in there is a metal or rubber seal containing the lubricant. Sealed bearings should generally only be stored for 2-3 years. After this time, the lubricant can break down where the oil and soaps separate making the lubricant unreliable. Some may say that an unopened bearing, stored correctly can be ok for up to 5 years in storage, the people I speak with tend to say 2-3 years maximum before you want to replace them.

Go and see if you can find a dusty package in your stores, if there's a bearing in there, try and find out how long it's been there.