[Kenwood] Capacitor reliability

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 29 May 2010 at 14:32, John E. Cleeve wrote:

> Hello Steve,
> 	Thank you for your comment. I agree with regard to the source of
> manufacture, I still have UK and USA source electrolytic capacitors in use
> that were manufactured during WWII!

Same here: and they still check good too.
  
> 	There is also an interesting Wikipedia entry regarding poorly
> manufactured electrolytics, and industrial espionage, where the electrolyte
> ingredients were copied but are not correct, and the resulting failures,
> some explosive!

That problem was very, very well known to those of us who have worked with 
computers for a living. ALL the major manufacturers of computers, 
motherboards, and peripherals such as monitors, video cards, modems, 
NICs, etc., have had very  bad experiences with these.

All those manufacturers lost millions of dollars in RMAs and in damage to 
their reputations.

In fact, of the 65 or so present manufacturers of small electrolytic caps, only 
three (!) are really any good at all. One of those is Nichicon, and even they 
have good and not-so-good offerings. Another is Panasonic whose offerings 
are in general the best.

So, in a word, choose your replacement electrolytics very carefully!!!!!!

For further info, go to www.badcaps.com

I might add that if one can catch the bad caps before they do damage to the 
multi-layered circuit boards in computers and adapaters or monitors, they can 
be replaced and the effected unit repaired for very little money and about an 
hour's work. This includes laptops.

Ken Gordon W7EKB