The GOOD Capacitors Thread!!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Wester547

Chemi-con *MIGHT* have fixed the issues with KZG sometime in 2008. I haven’t seen a KZG with 2008 datecodes bulge in storage and I haven’t seen a KZG with 2009 datecodes fail without a good reason (IOW: failure is rare). I’ve yet to see a KZG with 2010-2014 datecodes fail (they were still in production for a while after Chemi-con pulled them from their catalogue, just only sold to OEMs). However, premature 2007 failures are not unheard of and anything before that I would definitely avoid (2001-2006). Same goes for KZJ.

Good call!
I suppose KZG is not as terrible as it once was (and maybe they've indeed fixed the problem?)

But if you have a Pentium 3, Pentium 4, or Core 2 Duo/Quad -era motherboard with KZG, chances are you will see a good number of failures on those (especially the 6.3V/3300 uF, 6.3V/820uF, and 6.3V/1500 uF caps).

Originally Posted by RJARRRPCGP

I have yet to see KZGs bulging on a Core 2 motherboard... *But* it hasn't been 11 years yet!

Oh, I have seen plenty bad KZG from the Core 2 Duo/Quad era. Don't believe me? have a look at any ASUS IPIBL-xx motherboard with KZG caps and you will see. Or a Dell desktop tower from the same era.

Originally Posted by Heihachi_73

Not really a fan of Samxons though, they didn't last two years in a Hisense TV I had - I recapped it and stupidly left the other undamaged Samxons in the power supply (they all tested fine at the time), only for them to pop a few years later, taking out half the PSU circuitry with it.

Samxon GF or KF series? If yes, I'm not surprised.

There's actually very few Samxon series that have proven to be reliable, and these are the GD (i.e. Samxon GooD ), GT (goot? ), and RS series. Every other series from them, probably best to run away.

IMO, they are too overpriced for what they are anyways, so I just stick with the Japanese caps.

[RJARRRPCGP]

It wouldn't surprise me if the worst are the socket 462-era (also socket 754-era and socket 939-era) 3300 uF KZGs!

[mrging]

hello there, i just purchased nichicon BT caps 50v and 63v but they have different bum under like two link here
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/alumi...itors/7621752/
https://ly.rsdelivers.com/product/ni...CE%BCf/7621742
and im wondering is both good caps or one of those is fake

[PanicMechanic]

They are different in size, so the bottoms are just different. Plus, it is RS Components, so it is highly unlikely that they are fake.

[mrging]

ok thank you. im near china so im wondering anyone has experiences from buying from taobao. im planing to buy HE series 50v220uf. I found these two link
1/ the first https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm...ucket=9#detail
its printing 105oC litte offset with the model so im wondering is it fake or authen .
2/ and https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm...ucket=9#detail this one seem legit hmm

[PanicMechanic]

They are all fake or factory rejects at best.
I only tend buy Chinese caps from China.

BTW, if someone knows a seller that sells genuine ones, I would be interested to know.

[momaka]

If you really have no other option other than eBay, seller egekecu (PC MotherBoard Capacitors Store / PCMCS) is probably your best bet then. Some members here say even some of his caps may be fake, but personally I've never dealt with this seller so I can't confirm or deny those claims. But judging from the few people that did buy from him, looks like at least some (if not most or all) of his caps are genuine.

[PanicMechanic]

Thanks.

[subroto]

Thanks for this kind info.

[bradberry]

Originally Posted by Chris1992

Are Elna good caps? Saw about 20 of them in a 1987 VCR that was still working but unneeded. Because it was unneeded, I gutted it and am using the case in a mod project.

For audio, I consider elna silmics some of the best.

[midix]

Has anyone any experience with Changxin brand?

I have a bunch of them, they are dark green with golden text.

Besides the usual texts, the caps have also:
VENT
LOWESR
-40+105 C

I used a universal component tester and it tells the 1000uF caps are close to the nominal value, ESR is below 0.5 Ohms and voltage loss is below 1%.

Wondering, if it's ok to use them to replace Elite caps in an LCD power supply board? The Elite caps are brown and have also PET written on them (they haven't vented/leaked yet but the LCD is 10 years old and shows typical symptoms for bad caps). The Changxins do not have PET. If they serve for 10 years, it would be great.

Don't want to order and wait for better brand caps; my closest stores have the same Elite and Samxon; anything better comes from foreign stores and would cost at least 10 EUR for shipping alone.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by midix

Has anyone any experience with Changxin brand?

Not that particular version/brand.

But I have experience with Chang/Chong (however they're spelled), ChengX, and various copy cats of these, and none of them are good. Heck, not even mediocre. They are all cheap Chinese garbage not worth a single penny.

While Elite isn't considered great or even good, at least they aren't the worst out there by a long shot. I'd leave the Elite if I were you than gamble with those cheap Changxin caps, which sound just like another garbage brand. The fact that they have "LOWESR" written on them is typical of cheap crap cap brands. Also, just because they measure close to spec means nothing - put them in service and you'll be lucky to get more than a few months of use out of them before their specs go down the toilet. The only exception I would make to using such caps is if I really had nothing else available, and the old caps were already bad. Since they don't seem to be in your case (until you measure them, that is), I'd say keep the Elite.

As this is the GOOD capacitors thread, pretty much these are the caps to go with if you want GOOD reliable operation of your device:
- Rubycon
- Panasonic
- Nichicon
- United Chemicon

And if you're ever replacing big "can" caps (like for example, audio amplifier or large linear supplies or input filtering), the following are also considered OK brands for GP use:
- Elna
- EPCOS (TDK)
- Cornell Dubilier (CDE)
- Illinois Capacitor
(and *maybe* these too: Sprague / Vishay Sprague)

Then there's what I'd call are "somewhat "acceptable" Taiwanese/Korea/Japanese/Chinese brands:
Samxon (GT, GD, and RS series are very reliable; GS and GK - meh; others like GF - avoid!)
Taicon
OST (only RLS series are relatively OK and maybe RLG for GP use)
Su'scon
Toshin Kogyo [TK]
Teapo (certain series like SY may be OK; others keep away from heat)
SamWha

Originally Posted by midix

The Elite caps are brown and have also PET written on them (they haven't vented/leaked yet but the LCD is 10 years old and shows typical symptoms for bad caps). The Changxins do not have PET.

PET = polyethylene terephthalate
This just indicates what the sleeve of the cap is made of. PET plastic sleeves are resilient to most solvents, including harsh stuff like Acetone and Toluene, so they allow PCB to be washed in stronger solvents to clean flux and other residue from manufacturing without damaging the cap sleeve.

Since you're not doing that, it doesn't really matter in your case.

[whirlpool]

hi thanks

[signal_spl]

I used to put a lot of UCC / NCC in my repairs but i am not doing it anymore. Even though i only bought 105c 10k hour UCC / NCC for a year or 2, I removed so many failed one moreso than any other respected brand i've seen, i just think they are trash now. I have not had a UCC / NCC that I installed go bad, but the frequency I continue see them fail concerns me.

Is this fair of me to say? Of the big brands people trust, I see so many bad UCC/NCC and I see bad rubycon now and then, but never had a bad Delta, never had a bad Nichicon, never had a bad Panasonic...

Conversely, I think Lelon is trying to make their name better, and I have never had a failure to date of any Lelon, sure I have seen failed Lelon but they were always high voltage rated or high capacitance. I only buy 220uf or smaller Lelon and never had a problem, i actually bought a few 4700uf Lelon from mouser to put into a very rough circuit and see if it can survive.

So i honestly think Lelon belongs in the "sometimes good" category, better than Teapo and some others in the "sometimes" list @momoka posted. If the higher value 105C Lelon are OK after putting them under some stress may prefer them to brands like Vishay and KEMET.

I have had really great experience with TDK / EPCOS for general purpose repairs, though i never put one in a power supply yet. No reason besides other better known brands tend to have a cheaper option when I need to buy a really large quantity of larger caps like 2200/3300/4700uf.

[Wester547]

Originally Posted by signal_spl

I used to put a lot of UCC / NCC in my repairs but i am not doing it anymore. Even though i only bought 105c 10k hour UCC / NCC for a year or 2, I removed so many failed one moreso than any other respected brand i've seen, i just think they are trash now. I have not had a UCC / NCC that I installed go bad, but the frequency I continue see them fail concerns me.

Is this fair of me to say? Of the big brands people trust, I see so many bad UCC/NCC and I see bad rubycon now and then, but never had a bad Delta, never had a bad Nichicon, never had a bad Panasonic...

KZG or KZJ series? Possibly TMV and TMJ series? Those are the known bad series from Chemi-con. Most series are good. There were also some leakers from two to three decades ago or so which used a quaternary salt electrolytic composition from all the major brands. Rubycon’s MCZ and MFZ series have issues in high heat environments but most of their series are very good. Nichicon also had an infamously defective batch of their HM and HN series (and possibly HZ), made from 2001 to early 2005 (late 2005 for HZ). That lead Dell to settling a multimillion dollar lawsuit over a decade ago for shipping millions of PCs with said capacitors.

Conversely, I think Lelon is trying to make their name better, and I have never had a failure to date of any Lelon, sure I have seen failed Lelon but they were always high voltage rated or high capacitance. I only buy 220uf or smaller Lelon and never had a problem, i actually bought a few 4700uf Lelon from mouser to put into a very rough circuit and see if it can survive.

So i honestly think Lelon belongs in the "sometimes good" category, better than Teapo and some others in the "sometimes" list @momoka posted. If the higher value 105C Lelon are OK after putting them under some stress may prefer them to brands like Vishay and KEMET.

Lelon’s general purpose capacitors are possibly okay in low-stress environments but their low ESR capacitors have a significantly higher failure rate. Their notorious RXA series from the early 2000s brought down many MSI and AOpen motherboards. The reliability of that series was right down there with Sacon FZ on video cards.

[PeteS in CA]

Lelon low impedance caps did poorly in my torture tests back in 2005 or 2006. As did UCC KZG and KZJ a year or two later, much to my surprise at the time. UCC LXV, LXZ, KZE, and KY did well; Rubycon ZL series did well; Nichicon PR, PJ, PW, PA, and HE did well; Panasonic FC and FM did well.

[AleXis6]

Originally Posted by PeteS in CA

in my torture tests .

are the results available online? could you share please
and how you tested?
thank you

[PeteS in CA]

My test results are not online, and are with my employer of that time, two jobs ago now. My test fixturer was designed by an engineer at the company, and I built most of the test fixtures I used. It enabled me to apply a 10KHz square wave current of adjustable setting through the capacitor being tested. The current levels were usually 8X-10X the capacitors' rated ripple current.

The reason for that seemingly insane current was that in real usage, the capacitors could be subjected to that level of ripple current in the actual application periodically, up to 10% of a day cumulatively. My test ran the parts at that level for 21-22 hours a day, with the remaining hours for cooling down and making measurements. The test was destructive, but really good parts would last something like 1000-2000 hours before venting or the ESR doubling. Some poor quality parts lasted less than a day, with others venting within less than 100 hours.

[linuxguru]

Originally Posted by bradberry

For audio, I consider elna silmics some of the best.

Elna is indeed very good for audio, but some of their allegedly premium audio series measure worse on linearity than some of their regular professional-grade series.

IMHO, in approximate descending order of linearity (for audio):

Elna RSE LongLife (discontinued over a decade ago)
Elna RJL
Elna RJD
Elna RW5
Elna RJJ
Elna RJH
Elna RJ5
Elna RJ4
Elna RJ3

Some of their automotive series are surprisingly good for audio:

Elna RKD
Elna RK

Then come their audio series:

Elna RFS
Elna RFO
Elna ROS
Elna ROA

There are some subminiature Cerafines with the Silica/paper separator which are pretty good for the size - 7mm or shorter. I forget the names, but I stockpiled some about a decade ago for PC audio upgrades and similar. Also the Black/Gold Cerafines from Elna Thailand measure better than the original Red/Gold Cerafines from Japan (which look nicer on a PCB, though).

Nothing beats RSE on linearity except Rubycon Black Gate F (discontinued long ago) and some high-voltage Rubycon YXA and YXG (still available). AudioNote Kaisei tried to replicate the Graphite/Paper separator on the Black Gates, but apparently did not succeed (at an affordable price-point):

https://www.partsconnexion.com/capac...ei-series.html

They're still probably good value in comparison to NOS Black Gates, which are now only available from some boutique sellers on EBay, diyAudio and elsewhere.

[peterzilla]

Samsung is also a good an inexpensive choice.