List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

[grumpy_one]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

I hope this isn't off-topic, but I just bought a couple of packets of cheap electrolytics on ebay. One packet was 125 caps (5 each of 25 types, various brand names, all marked 105 degrees C). I tested their ESR, and found that half of them were higher than the limit specified on my ESR meter. One was defective (open circuit). The other packet was 50 caps, all 220 uF 16 V, marked 105 C, and branded Chenxing. For all but one of them, ESR varied from 0.48 Ohms to 0.64 Ohms, where the limit specified on my meter is 0.4. The one exception was 0.96, which I regard as defective.
These results have made me think that the second batch at least, consisted of factory culls: capacitors which failed the factory quality control tests. The first batch may have been something similar but they may have failed other tests rather than just ESR.

From my point of view, I'd be prepared to use nearly all of these capacitors in home projects for use in my own home, provided whatever I was working on would not cause anyone any problems if it failed. However I would not use any of them in a repair for a friend, nor would I give any of them to anyone else to use. To me they are not horrendously bad - I'm old enough to remember when, here in Australia, some of the caps I bought from well-known trade suppliers were considerably worse than these.

[Hanatsu]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

My garage computer has been acting up for a while now. Finally took it out and checked the motherboard and guess what...

4x 470uF 16V Teapo's blown in a MSI board.

[jazzie366]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

I've never heard of this brand either. This Anodia 1000uF 16V cap was in a dead Telstra TT-300-6B cordless phone wall wart from 1997. Transformer was open on primary (19 ohms on secondary).

The negative stripe is identical to Su'scon. Note the basketball-shaped vent...

Did some digging and asking around, found out that Anodia caps are made by "ANODIA ELECTRONIC CO., LTD", a Taiwanese brand. They are another manufacturer of capacitors, good or bad? Who knows, they seem very uncommon. That vent is insane though, I'd imaging it's probably very effective in the case of a fault.

[Stefan Payne]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

4x 470uF 16V Teapo's blown in a MSI board.

1. How old is that?! Haven't seen a red MSI board in years...
Could it be that that's an oldish AM2 Board with an nForce chipset?

2. Teapo SZ -> ultra low ESR caps by the looks of it...

[Pentium4]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Old. The date code on the Teapo caps are 30th week of 2008.

[RukyCon]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

i opened up a cheep 12v to 5v USB charger and found 2 interesting capacitors
brands capacity and voltage
EU cap 4.7uf 50v
HDS 100uf 16v
i will try to take photos of them

[RukyCon]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

i opened up a 2 more 12v to 5v USB chargers
number 2 had some chang caps 22uf 35v and 220uf 10v
number 3 had some fencon caps 47uf 35v and 100uf 16v

[jazzie366]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

i opened up a 2 more 12v to 5v USB chargers
number 2 had some chang caps 22uf 35v and 220uf 10v
number 3 had some fencon caps 47uf 35v and 100uf 16v

chang = trash

fencon = for low work loads like that, it'll be fine.

[RukyCon]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

chang = trash

fencon = for low work loads like that, it'll be fine.

Ok i have a few chang caps in my collection of capacitors.

[RukyCon]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Now should i use nicon or micon caps for a custom audio amp.

[televizora]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Bulged rubycons...

[PeteS in CA]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

tele, this thread distinguishes between caps that fail and manufacturers who produce crap. You give me the right equipment and I'll cause the best 10K hours caps fail withing a couple thousand hours ... or less than a second.

The intent of this thread is to highlight and warn against producers of crap. And watch train wrecks.

[mrmazda]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Does Enercon belong here? Using both the menu and Google to search for it here turned up nothing good or bad. My #2 Magnavox MDR513H DVR quit. I found 3 heavily swollen Enercon GS 10x20 3300uF 6.3V 85° caps on its PS board. Replacing them with on-hand 10x25 Panasonic FR fixed it right up.

[jiroy]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

First time i see this label , Asia'x , and hope the last , all the capacitors in a Delux power supply are bulged and leaking , in a Core i5 barely five months used ...

[PeteS in CA]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Does Enercon belong here? Using both the menu and Google to search for it here turned up nothing good or bad. My #2 Magnavox MDR513H DVR quit. I found 3 heavily swollen Enercon GS 10x20 3300uF 6.3V 85° caps on its PS board. Replacing them with on-hand 10x25 Panasonic FR fixed it right up.

Pretty sure that brand is Hall of Infamy grade. And if that 85C GP cap was an output cap for a switching P/S, that was engineering malpractice.

[mrmazda]

Pretty sure that brand is Hall of Infamy grade. And if that 85C GP cap was an output cap for a switching P/S, that was engineering malpractice.

Every cap I can see in the machine is 85°. I have other machines in the model series, older and newer. I opened up an older one to find Su'scon in the PS board locations of the one with bad Enercons, as well as most other locations, but 8x12 or smaller Enercons in two other locations on the PS board, and several locations on the main board. Funai is the actual manufacturer of the Magnavox-branded machines.

[RukyCon]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

I got a free power supply with capacitors i have very little hope in them lasting.
Brands: NL, NOAI.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Every cap I can see in the machine is 85°. I have other machines in the model series, older and newer. I opened up an older one to find Su'scon in the PS board locations of the one with bad Enercons, as well as most other locations, but 8x12 or smaller Enercons in two other locations on the PS board, and several locations on the main board. Funai is the actual manufacturer of the Magnavox-branded machines.

Electrolytic caps are not created equal, nor are the functions they perform. A switching power supply output capacitor is stressed far more than a random general purpose decoupling capacitor on a PCB. Depending on the temperature inside the TV or whatever, an 85C general purpose part might be appropriate for decoupling.

On the other hand, a switching power supply output capacitor must be low impedance or it will swiftly fail. And low impedance parts are almost always rated for 105C (I have seen a few series that are rated for 125C). Cap manufacturers just don't do low impedance parts rated for 85C.

That is the reason I said using an 85C electrolytic cap as an output cap for a switching power supply is engineering malpractice. BTW, FWIW, I've worked in power electronics since 1980, so I am speaking from a bit of experience.

[mrmazda]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Electrolytic caps are not created equal, nor are the functions they perform. A switching power supply output capacitor is stressed far more than a random general purpose decoupling capacitor on a PCB. Depending on the temperature inside the TV or whatever, an 85C general purpose part might be appropriate for decoupling.

On the other hand, a switching power supply output capacitor must be low impedance or it will swiftly fail. And low impedance parts are almost always rated for 105C (I have seen a few series that are rated for 125C). Cap manufacturers just don't do low impedance parts rated for 85C.

When I searched Mouser and Digi-Key for equivalents to the bad Enercons I found all 5 major brand (Mouser) results in the 10x20 can size spec'd to materially lower ripple, were 85° rated, and classified as GP. (Digi-Key) results with at least as much ripple were all 105° and at least 25mm tall (but also classified as GP rather than either low impedance or low ESR, which it seems Digi-Key does with all 'lytics). So it seems Enercon must be publishing optimistic specs.

That is the reason I said using an 85C electrolytic cap as an output cap for a switching power supply is engineering malpractice. BTW, FWIW, I've worked in power electronics since 1980, so I am speaking from a bit of experience.

So you started back when popular consumer electronics were still designed better than to simply outlast a warranty.

[mrmazda]

Re: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

I opened up my #1 Magnavox MDR513H DVR, my only Magnavox MDR515H DVR, and my #2 Magnavox H2160MW9A DVR to find Su'scons in place of the three bad Enercon GS 3300uF 6.3V 85° I recently reported here. These machines all have 8x12 Enercon GS 1000uF 6.3V 85° at up to 6 visible locations each, including one on each PS board. On the MDR515H the one at C1419 on the mainboard has a swollen top.