The phrase They don't makem like they use to" applies here and just about everything.

Look for "Made in Japan". The last motherboard I purchased from a Taiwanese brand had "Japanese Capacitors" in big letters on the box as a feature.

List of bad capacitor manufacturers:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=388

List of GOOD capacitor manufacturers:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=414

And don't forget that even good capacitors are counterfeited, especially if bought on ebay.

Don't trust any ebay caps

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I suggest you buy high temp high hour caps from mouser. Always buy Japanese. Most caps are only rated for 1000 hours (though that is at max load). I mostly buy nicheon (maybe bad spelling) or Panasonic caps. Gl

About 15 years ago there was a huge rash of bad capacitors, even from reputable manufacturers and suppliers, due to chinese industrial espionage gone wrong. Apparently one company stole a formula from another... not realizing that the stolen formula was defective. And of course it spread on from there. Was the "bad formula" a deliberate plant? Wouldn't surprise me!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/29/dell-problems-capacitors

Fun times. And I'll bet the fallout did not end there: I *still* encounter defective caps in equipment built less than 10 years ago.

But man, I remember my main rig at the time ran a Gigabyte Athlon motherboard where every cap was burst and foaming like a freshly poured draft stout, yet that thing NEVER gave me any grief! But my parents' PC's had boards with just a couple caps barely bulging and had no end of trouble. So even "defective caps" aren't all equally so, it would seem.

That looks more expensive to produce then to just make the capacitor.

Inside that smaller blue capacitor, is yet another smaller capacitor.....

Are you sure they aren’t really nesting dolls for nerds?

Wow!

MATRYOSHKAPS!

matryoshka-components-01 (resized).jpg

Actually, in all seriousness, there is an occasional legit case for that. About 10 years ago I rebuilt a 1957 Zenith Hi-Fi where all the caps were shot. The spec'd electrolytics of that era were no longer available lonnnng ago. And they were huge, besides. So what I had to do was hollow out the original canister, and wire in newer components in series / parallel (can't remember what the math was, now). I hid the newer smaller components in the older canister so it would retain the vintage look as well as retain the original mounting lugs within the circuit.

Anyway, HOLY HELL does that HiFi - with all 10 watts to its name driving two 12" woofers - completely astound every single person who hears a demo. The bass that thing puts out is otherworldly, and the clarity and volume is astounding. Tubes aren't bullshit, man. I just wish that particular model was stereo.

I second the good list, specifically Nichicon. We had power supply issues with one of our products with inferior caps in the power supply. Our research teams approved modification was to replace them with Nichicon brand caps. We replace around 1000 caps with them over a decade ago with good results.

You can pull on the handle on the end of the string to lower the garage door. Pull on that and manually close the door. There are slide locks on either side of the door!

I had the same issue with my opener after just 6 months. Came home door was open couldn't figure out why. Happened 3 more times. Looked online caps leaking is common on those openers. I replaced the caps on mine it was easy. Works great now.

I stick with Nichicon, Chemi-con. or Panasonic. Keep in mind they have application specific series for caps. Like Nichicon PW series is high reliability and low impedance made for switch mode power supplies.
http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/Nichicon/Nichicon%20Series%20Chart.pdf

That said i think the poor quality early failure scare of capacitors is largely over blown in old caps and new caps. Everybody loves a capacitor kit. People love selling them, buying them, and installing them. most caps that get replaced are probably fine. If you buy a good brand I don't think they are inferior to old ones. Ask me in thirty years tho... I will probably have a better idea then.

For what its worth i have some switcher supplies that are full of changX or chongX that have been running nearly 24/7 for years. The chang/chongX caps test proper as GP cap and seem to be at least serviceable for years when not stressed. Not instant fail crap. People still have the fear because of the bad cap problems from 10-15 years ago.

You get way you pay for tho. If you are making a product, probably smart to go with a properly selected good brand cap.

I got this in the mail the other day.

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I got a very similar post card last week, lol

So did I. Only one in the list that I use are United Chemi-Con but not enough to consider this.

Panasonic is my current favorite but I'll use Nichicon and Rubycon as well (watch out for "Rulycon"!). Been trying to stock the long life EB series but they cost considerably more.

Quality from some of the old US brands such as Richey, Erie (gone) & Illinois Cap are OK. These guys have been around 50+ years but have been caught up in the 'outsource it and make it cheaper' mantra... too bad. Illinois Cap has been making lots of improvements last few years, been buying up some of the other big cap companies and are outsourcing a bit less. Hopefully they'll continue. Trying to work out a distribution deal with them but it's like banging your head on a wall talking to these guys.

Then there are the Chinese brands that are absolute crap such as GSC, CapXOn, Lelon, etc.

I got the above class action notification about capacitors on Friday.

With a 35M dollar settlement, divided by the billions of capacitors sold during the time frame, I imagine my share of that settlement would be a tiny fraction of a single penny.

I'm thinking $30M of the $35M was used just to mail out all the post cards.