Water droplets sign of bad cap?

[mikay786]

Just working on another subwoofer and identified some bulging caps on the power supply side of the board but looking at the other board with the inputs noticed some of the caps have little droplets of water / electrolytic on the black glue that surrounds them?

Is this electrolytic leakage from the caps, and a sign they are bad too?

[stj]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

is that black shit epoxy, or is it flexable?
you need to remove it from the board and find why some of those resistors are cooking.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

Ahhh they are crappy JH aka Just Horrendous. They do look blown out from the bung, remove them and check.

[mikay786]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

It's flexible to a degree, but a bitch to remove. Peels off / cracks off. Why the hell do they (monitor audio) cake their boards in it!

Tested some other JH ones in the psu side and they are toast and some were OK. (They are all JH I think)

Ordered replacement caps for all of them as am going to recap it anyway, so wil test when I get them removed tommorrow.

Just first time I've seen liquid droplets.

[Behemot]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

You may already try audio caps when its for sub…

[mikay786]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

You may already try audio caps when its for sub…

Panasonic FR series not suitable?

[stj]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

will be fine.

[Behemot]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

Audio caps are supposed to provide lower signal noise. If they are on the signal trace, it is preferred, if on the power traces, you may use everything.

And while most people here is crazy about Panasonic, they are one of the most expansive brands. Have a look for new Chemi-Con series (KZM, KZN, KYB). They are often superior.

[stj]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

price depends on country and supplier.

[mikay786]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

A few of them were dead around the droplets. The capacitance was within range but the esr on them was 30 ohm+

I had a £5 voucher to use at farnell for leaving a review on trust pilot, so worked out only costing me £5. Only thing with farnell is on some caps they only sell in minimum quantities of 5 or whatever.

At first I was like who cares they cost peanuts anyway, but now that i'm using more it adds up quickly, plus I have loads left after completing repair. Ive got two small compartments full of caps now, perhaps a good time to organise them in values so can use in future.

[stj]

Re: Water droplets sign of bad cap?

it's good to have some spares on hand.
saves time next time you fix something.