Short little video on common mistakes seen when recapping (replacing capacitors) vintage electronics. This would include vintage stereos, radios, equipment, CBs, ham radio receivers & transmitters, calculators, computers, you name it.
Hopefully this will provide you some tips and hints to use when you go to recap your piece of vintage gear.
Topics include:
– Mistaking Factory Glue for Leaking Capacitors
– Factory Boards and Manuals Marked Wrong
– Capacitors Installed Incorrectly
– Using Larger Capacitors Than Specified
– Buying Electrolytic Capacitors off Ebay
– Replacing Everything at Once
THANK YOU!!! Great stuff
You fail to mention the important and massive difference between standard electrolytics and long life, high ripple current low ESR, long life types.
Just fitting any old cap of the right value in a critical area is a bad thing to do. You may get lucky or you may have just created a time bomb repair.
Just look at any capacitor manufacturers on line catalogue (Rubycon, Nichicon, Nippon chemi con etc) and you will see many different series of different quality caps. From cheap 1000 hour 85°C general use caps to much better 5,000 hour 130°C high ripple low ESR types.
Even fitting higher voltage parts may have a drawback; going from 50V to 63V may mean a drop in ripple current and increase in ESR.
Be careful with your choices.
Too much capacitance in a power supply can cause extreme current inrush, making fuses pop because you were too impatient to wait on the mail for the proper value cap to arrive. I see people substituting values out of pure impatience.
Something I have always wondered: with caps and resistors going bad , is it age that impacts it or age combined with use? For instance would a never used cap from 1950 be good or is it the age itself that reduces functionality?
Some really good points, some no-brainers too. One point you maybe missed: be aware of the capacitors brand and its reputation! Its not just age, its also the brand that matters. I recently got some ROE old electrolytics, they are 34 years but still nearly meet their specs! They are great quality from old Germany, Roederstein in Bavaria, so called gold caps. Maybe ESR is little bit high, but all other specs look fine.