Bad Cap Manufacturers  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 02:26:07 pm
content: I found this list of capacitor MFG to avoid. Some of these I am not sure and others I have never heard of. If you have comments on any of these or want to add any to the list feel free. I am going to start my own blacklist of cap MFG's and purge myself of these fakes and crappy components. Here is a decent list I got from a post on badcaps.net.ArconCaniconCapxonChhsiChoyoCTCDSTFuh YinFuhjyyuFujitsuGloriaG-LuxonGLGscHecHermeiI.Q.JackconJDECJeeJpconJun FuLelonLiconNkconNrsyOSTPartsnicPce-turRayconRubysunRulyconSkywellStoneSupaconSu'sconTaiconTayehTeapoToconWendellYec

author: rolandpenplotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 02:59:20 pm
content: Quote from: Terabyte2007 on January 22, 2014, 02:26:07 pmI see the word "con" in that list, A LOT; rather apt, no?

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:18:58 pm
content: I believe that BadCaps.com calls Capxon-Crapzon. Dell Optiplex GX270 computers had motherboards that had them and it was a major pain in the ass for them. My company had a couple of thousand of them deployed in the field. Dell ended up extending the warranty for a year, sent up a couple of thousand replacement boards and paid us to replace them. Then, we were having Dell 15" LCD monitors failing. Come to find out that the same caps were on the power/inverter board. I can't count how many of those monitors I replaced bad caps on, but my boss allowed me to buy the parts and expense them so I went for Panasonic caps. No more failures.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:26:04 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 22, 2014, 03:18:58 pmI can believe it. I personally feel that these cheap ass caps are responsible for most failures especially in power supplies. I recently had a Nvidia graphics card failure and the culprit? You guessed it, bad caps!There should be a ban on sub-standard components like these, but many companies use them to save money on their BOM and supply the consumer with a cheaper product in order to stay competitive.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:27:07 pm
content: Quote from: rolandpenplotter on January 22, 2014, 02:59:20 pmYeah, no kidding!

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:42:34 pm
content: I am a member of badcaps.net for a long time and it's the first time I see that list. It's either from an old thread or it's extracted from a thread with relevant information removed.There are a few brands there in the list that don't deserve to be there - they are probably there because a number of failures were reported by people repairing stuff, but that's usually due to bad design of the product they're in, not the capacitors themselves.For example..Fujitsu - they made functional polymer capacitors, nowadays they're absorbed by Nichicon and the series is nichicon fp-cap . Good capacitors, probably some dell machines died due to heat so they show on the listOST - bad electrolytic capacitors (used a lot on socket 462 and socket am2 boards, some older power supplies) but their polymer capacitors are (very) good, they are used a lot in new productsPartsnic - daewoo capacitors ..probably show up in the list because some moron designer used a general purpose series as a low esr or in an area with high heat or current ripples.Su'scon - used a lot in LG monitors and other monitor brands in general, in some power supplies, in some routers or switches that don't have ventilation etc ... seems they fail more often in some countries due to humidity perhaps, in other countries they don't have reported problems. They do fail, but not as much as the other chinese shit in the list.Taicon - this is really a good brand, it's a factory in Taiwan that's part owned by Nichicon. Used A LOT by Delta and Enhance (makes server psus) in their power supplies and they're fine. Probably were a few reports of blown Taicon capacitors so they showed up in the list.Teapo - huge manufacturer of capacitors with good quality capacitors. A few particular low series of capacitors (one or two with very low diameter capacitors) tend to dry up or go bad in power supplies and motherboards due to heat, but if you avoid those series with failure reports the other series are fine. Japanese manufacturers like Nichicon, Nippon Chemi Con etc also had problem series so it's not fair to blacklist a company like Teapo just because it has it's problem series.Teapo is probably the most common capacitor brand after the japanese ones, they sell a lot of capacitors and I would rate them just behind the Japanese manufacturers and in the same class with Taicon.If it's a list of brands that had failures, like I said.. even Nichicon or Nippon Chemi Con would have to be added to the list, and they're very good manufacturers.rolandpenplotter: "con" comes from the old name for capacitors, which is "condensator" orcondensateur... Nichicon, Rubycon, Nippon ChemiConall reputable Japanese manufacturers.

author: rolandpenplotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:45:34 pm
content: Quote from: mariush on January 22, 2014, 03:42:34 pmYes, I knew that. "Con" also means to "dupe" or "swindle"

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:49:47 pm
content: Quote from: rolandpenplotter on January 22, 2014, 03:45:34 pmYes, but that comes from a different source ... abbreviation ofconfidence, as in confidence trick.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 03:50:38 pm
content: Quote from: mariush on January 22, 2014, 03:42:34 pmThanks for the reply. Your input is appreciated. You are probably right, I'm sure some of these on the list are not bad but it is a good place to start. Good info to have!

author: rolandpenplotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 05:19:04 pm
content: Quote from: mariush on January 22, 2014, 03:49:47 pmWell, yeah; It was a pun; sorry that you missed it.

author: rolandpenplotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 05:36:31 pm
content: A manufacturerofa bad cap, would be Burberry:

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 05:47:57 pm
content: Quote from: rolandpenplotter on January 22, 2014, 05:36:31 pmLOL

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 06:09:07 pm
content: I consider Taicon, Teapo, and SamXon to be "Tier 2" cap brands--not quite as reliable or reputable as the Japanese brands, but still quite good if you use them intelligently.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 06:26:06 pm
content: When I was repairing the Dell monitors and for a while, Elo touchscreen monitors, I stuck with either Panasonic, Rubycon or Illinois Capacitors products. Worked fine business. I don't have experience with any of the other caps besides the Capzon caps, but they were bad enough. The issues with the Dell motherboards really gave me and my fellow field service techs quite the pain in the ass. We would have sites with as little as a half dozen or so to as many as 40 GX-270s set up and would have to check each and every one of them. Of course, the computers were never on the desk, either on the floor or in those annoying CPU brackets mounted under the desk. So, you get dusty/dirty, bang your head under the desk and have annoyed users that you just kicked off their PC.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 06:29:53 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 22, 2014, 06:26:06 pmOh man do I know the feeling!

author: MartinX
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 08:06:04 pm
content: At work we have used Lelon capacitors in a few products and there have been no incidents, they are from Taiwan and I have found noting bad or dodgy about their products, I have even heard there have been fake Lelon capacitors floating around the spot market.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 08:35:52 pm
content: Terrabyte2007, sucks, doesn't it. My area of coverage isn't bad, I only have 14 sites to cover. There are techs with almost twice that number. It is just how the geographical areas worked out. I also don't have any of the mega sites with the 40 computers in them, but still it wasn't fun. We had to fit the retrofit in among all other service calls and day to day administrivia we have to do and get it done without overtime. Dell didn't have an issue paying us to do it, they just didn't want to pay the overtime rate. I think by the time the dust cleared, it took almost a whole month to swap all those boards out.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 09:03:12 pm
content: Kind of on topic...How would you guys rate lelon tantalum caps, slightly overspecced when compared to the original?

author: denelec
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 11:05:10 pm
content: A few years ago, the power supply of my external hard drive died.Inside, I found a 400V 47uF swollen Fuhjyyu capacitor.I replaced the capacitor, but unfortunately, it didn't revive the power supply.A few month ago, I decided to check the power supply of my 10 years old PC. The PC was working fine.Most of the capacitors were Fuhjyyu. Two of them were swollen.I decided to replace most of the Fuhjyyu capacitors.I may have averted a catastrophe.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 11:05:50 pm
content: Quote from: Terabyte2007 on January 22, 2014, 02:26:07 pmWouldn't it be easier just to keep a list of known good cap manufacturers and their series?http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2280I pretty much stick to Panasonic and Rubycon from reputable distributors (that means no ebay).

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 11:16:26 pm
content: Unfortunately that thread was last updated in December 2009.Some series are discontinued ( Nichicon HM/HN/HZ , Rubycon MBZ/MCZ for example) so what's still available is basically old stock which isn't really a bad thing if the store is reputable and kept the capacitors in a good environment, or they're mostly fakes in the case of eBay.Some new good series aren't listed there ( Nichicon HW or Panasonic FR for example), some newer Nichicon polymer series etc.When in doubt, everyone should feel free to ask on that forum about what capacitors would be suitable, but otherwise there's really no universal answer.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 11:32:16 pm
content: Quote from: retiredcaps on January 22, 2014, 11:05:50 pmTrue, I tend to buy reputable brands but I also have bins of new and old mixed caps that I use on occasion. I usually check the ESR and test them to be sure and use the more reputable brands and toss the rest. But on occasion when I am repairing something it would be nice to identify the crap caps if the name is not recognized.

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2014, 11:35:56 pm
content: Quote from: mariush on January 22, 2014, 11:16:26 pmI agree, for what it's worth I think I am going to start a FAQ for this and update it occasionally.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2014, 07:59:34 am
content: Quote from: mariush on January 22, 2014, 11:16:26 pmI have tried with other members in the past to get that list updated, but eventually gave up.

author: justanothercanuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2014, 11:07:17 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 22, 2014, 03:18:58 pm260's, 270's, 280's were also the bane of my existence. If it wasn't the motherboards, it was the power supplies, or the hard drives. Now it's the 760's and 780's. I would never recommend Dell to someone for desktops. I've had decent luck with their laptops though.

author: ampdoctor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2014, 04:18:11 am
content: I've pretty much always used CDE, mallory, Vishay/Sprague, United Chemicon, Panasonic, and Nichicon for as long as I can remember and have never had an issue with those brands. However I'm not trying to squeeze every penny of margin out of the BOM and I know they're quality parts. What I find interesting on that list is how many of the shady cap mfg's have names that are dangerously similar to top tier mfg's, probably hoping for confusion in the market by the purchasing agent.Also, for the life of me I don't understand why somebody would buy caps on Fleabay from oddball asian sellers. You're barely saving anything compared to the major vendors like Digikey, Mouser, etc, who have prices pretty much cut to the bone anyway, and you've got no clue who the seller is, whether or not they're old stock, or worse if you're buying counterfeit parts. If it costs me 10c more per component it doesn't matter to me as a service tech or if I'm building a one off, and I know exactly what I'm getting and who I'm dealing with.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2014, 06:47:44 am
content: Quote from: ampdoctor on January 27, 2014, 04:18:11 amSince you live in the USA, you may not understand some minimum orders, custom/duties, high shipping costs and other factors that most International customers, including Canada, face when dealing with a distributor.In addition, most people who buy capacitors have no clue as to what is required or what are good brand names. So getting them on ebay for cheap, because someone on youtube recommended it, is easy.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 28, 2014, 02:03:51 am
content: Quote from: justanothercanuck on January 26, 2014, 11:07:17 pmWe are no longer deploying Dell in the field here in Florida, we are using HP Z series. The company, however, supplies us field techs with Dell Inspiron laptops. These work just fine.