Chinese capacitors - names please

[kramden66]

can you guys give the names of the various chinese electrolytics and film caps or what the film caps may look like

thanks
mike

[Eric H]

It might be easier to list the ones that aren't Chinese made?

[N2IXK]

There are many, many brandnames (including counterfeit versions of premium brands like Nippon Chemi-Con and Rubycon). The "worst of the worst" in my experience is a brand called "CapXon".

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by kramden66

can you guys give the names of the various chinese electrolytics and film caps or what the film caps may look like

thanks
mike

Quite simple - go to alibaba.com and search for capacitor. Alibaba is the Chinese marketplace that so many of your junk dealers buy their Chinese stuff from.

Of note, the Shenzen region is where 90% of the Chinese clone/counterfeit stuff originates from. I went to a US Customs / FTC brief on counterfeit Chinese goods in 2011 and they showed why things are made there - reliable electricity, cheap labor, and rail lines leading to the ports. No quality control, dirt floors in places making food items, and the electronics are culled for prime/seconds and scrap. Prime stuff goes to OEMs, seconds goes to the gray market/alibaba, and scrap goes to the kids that strip it for reuse of the various metals.

jb Capacitors is one cap company that spams me with a lot of offers, mostly for their film caps, all about .02c/each in 10,000 quantity. Crapola - the samples all were nice, but the other stuff wasn't even close. They offer audiophile stuff, and the greenies with their markings, but the lead time suggests someone else (??? who knows) makes them. ETR capacitors is where Justradios gets their supply of caps - same .02c each, and (in my one experience) poor quality. Others here like them, so YMMV.

I'm an Orange Drop/CDE DME/DMF cap aficionado. I use to buy the Orange drops from Mouser exclusively, but now that CDE has taken over the orange drop line, I get them from a variety of places. As for electrolytics, I stick to the high-temp Panasonics and the occasional NIC, Illinois Capacitor, and Nichicon. Panasonics are now carried with depth at Mouser and DigiKey, making whoever has them cheaper my go-to distributor. Buy more than 1 qty -the price drops sharply, and so far, they are all fresh caps.

Cheers,

[Tubejunke]

Do they still make Sprague caps? Also, does anyone still market multi section electrolytics?

[Findm-Keepm]

Barker Microfarads in Hillsville (VIRGINIA!!!) makes electrolytics on the old Sprague Atom equipment. I'm not sure if they provide Vishay (sprague is only a name, not a manufacturer anymore) with caps or not.

There are a few boutique manufacturers making FP-style electrolytics in 450V-600V values, but most are available only from audiophile suppliers. AES has some.

Sprague was busted up years ago, with SBE maintaining the manufacturing, and Vishay buying the sprague name. SBE retained the orange drop trademark, and made them under their name and Sprague/Vishay. Recently, SBE sold the orange drop line to CDE, who now markets and makes them exclusively. My last three batches of 225P and 715P's all had a China country-of-origin, so the made in USA orange drops are no more. Strangely, SBE still holds the trademark.

Also of note, Virginia also has a ceramic disc manufacturer in Hampton (Maida) making disc caps and more. You've seen them - MDC is the brand.

Cheers,

[tvdude1]

So if you were to use those yellow caps which brand and where would you buy them? if quality is an issue?

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by tvdude1

So if you were to use those yellow caps which brand and where would you buy them? if quality is an issue?

Illinois capacitor makes some nice MPW/MWR mylars (polyester and polypropylene) and Mallory (CDE) has their 150 series of axials. Both are available at Allied and others. For HV caps, nothing beats ASC's high voltage axials - 3000V types are drying up at Allied. CDE's 940C series are available, but not in small values. Doug Harmon and I had a similar thread in 2010 about caps. He was also trying to avoid the Chinese stuff.

Mouser and Digi-Key carry the Panasonic ECQ series radial caps - again, great to have a second dealer. For years, it was all Digi-Key, and selection and price suffered. Along came Mouser, and the prices dropped, and the depth and range of values increased. I bought from Mouser when they first started carrying the Panasonics - great prices before the Tsunami that hit Japan. I guess their lead time increased, and the prices rose again. I got .047uf/400v Panasonic caps for less than 18 cents each, but those days are now gone. Oddly, some of the tighter tolerances were cheaper than the 20% types.

I go through more electrolytics than film, but have had positive experiences with all of the above.

Cheers,

[Kevin Kuehn]

I'm curious what type of problems folks have had with the Chinese yellow axial lead caps? I've used bunches of them from AES, Radio Daze, and Just Radios over the years. Never recall having an issue with any.

[Username1]

Good idea of you guys in the know to post about capacitors to keep away from !

Thank you......

[Tubejunke]

On the topic of checking your caps before installing them, which I think makes a heck of a lot of sense, I wonder what any of you are checking them with. I know that the standard stand alone device is an ESR or LSR meter (can't recollect which is correct). But the versions that I have seen are battery operated and can't test the capacitor under a real world working voltage.

Then there are capacitance functions on just about any junky digital multimeter these days. Same thing; that 9V battery isn't able to do any real world loading. On lager value caps a good old Simpson analog meter at least used to be a half decent way of checking them (back when techs knew how to use a real meter) with the resistance function, but even that meter is powered by I think a few C cells. Now the VTVM (vacuum tube volt meter) versions obviously had to plug into the wall, but I really don't know what the difference is in what EMF is applied in a resistance test; probably not much. They only plug into a wall outlet to power the tubes.

I think that whatever device that can be obtained that would properly check a cap would be a very valuable tool for anyone doing what we are doing, or any other bench work for that matter.

[N2IXK]

Now the VTVM (vacuum tube volt meter) versions obviously had to plug into the wall, but I really don't know what the difference is in what EMF is applied in a resistance test; probably not much. They only plug into a wall outlet to power the tubes.

The ohms range test voltage on VTVMs was typically provided by a 1.5V "D" cell battery, not derived from the line voltage.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by N2IXK

The ohms range test voltage on VTVMs was typically provided by a 1.5V "D" cell battery, not derived from the line voltage.

You are correct about the VTVM , and in fact , there is only one handy way I know of to test higher voltage capacitors at close to their actual working voltages . This type of cap checker is capable of supplying up to 450 volts for the "dielectric breakdown" (leakage) function of test . These testers were made by Heathkit , Sprague , and RCA among others , and almost all of them use the eye tube as their method of indication .

No modern day , 9V battery supplied meter , will come close to the "real world" results produced by one of these . Sure , they can tell you value and internal resistance , but only the real world voltage test will reveal whether or not the cap will hold up at the intended operating voltage ....

PS , sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures , it's all I got to work with . If a picture is worth 1000 words , well maybe a somewhat blurry one is still worth a good 500 or so

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by N2IXK

The ohms range test voltage on VTVMs was typically provided by a 1.5V "D" cell battery, not derived from the line voltage.

Exactly right; I don't know how I let that fact slip by me since I have the actual "C" cell sitting right in front of me. Interestingly, this Simpson was given to me to fix up, and when I pulled the cell out I could see that it was rather dated. It is a Union Carbide Eveready "Nine Lives" with 30 cents each marked on the side. I couldn't believe it when I checked the cell and it was still producing EMF after all these years! Usually they have leaked and corroded everything long ago, but not this one. Pretty neat!

Anyway, so we are still dealing with the fact that everyday capacitance test devices these days are using a very minimal voltage in performing the test. I am pretty certain that there are vintage testers that test under load. I'm not sure how easily one might be obtained or how reliable one might be. I sort of have a rule that I like to repair and use vintage equipment, but I don't want to have to repair or restore my test equipment, so if I can I like to try to find reasonably newer stuff that would not require restoration. Given, much of the old stuff like Simpson V.O.M.s (solid state) and Hickok tube testers are pretty much bullet proof. On the flip though, I don't really want to rely on a really old O-scope unless someone has given it the once over that knows what they are doing.

[47'Plymouth]

What is the opinion of RicheyCaps out of Nashville,Tenn
Ya'll have any trouble out of those brand caps