Inexpensive Electrolytic Capacitors

[Wayne]

I wonder - did the guy faking the caps (the outside layer) think he was putting a real cap inside? It would be ironic if someone else had "faked" him!

Still sux, tho.

W

[electrocutioner]

Nice thread! Didn't know all these stories with caps...

I'm using F&T all the time and BC for the small axials. I don't find them expensive...

[iknowjohnny]

I always heard filters make no difference, so since i started building amps i never bothered with worrying about of A/B'ing brands. Well, yesterday i did. I had some atoms and i replaced the F&T at V1 in my hi gain marshallesque build with a 16uf then a 20uf and let me tell you, they CAN make a difference and it's not subtle at all! I measured the atoms and one measures 25uf and the other 20uf even tho they were labeled 16 and 20uf. The F&T i tried them in place of measured 25, so the one atom was the same capacitance and therefore it was not that which caused the change. But the point is that whatever it is, different caps can sound very very different. The Atoms had a much smoother softer sound which i can see being helpful in a harsh sounding stage. Conclusion....i would not necessarily say you should avoid cheap caps, but i would say bite the bullet and but several brands and see which sound the way you like. This is a relatively cheap way to tweak the amp's tone.

[Andy Le Blanc]

It really does matter, you should set up a poll on another post.

See what comes out on top.

[Structo]

I found an article on fake Rubycons on ebay and decided to look what kind of "bargain" I fell for so I chopped open a recent cheap "Rubycon" 33 uF 450V axial. It was pretty sickening. There was a small 22 uF 450 v labelled rubycon inside the larger 33 uF 450V labelled can YK type. Worse yet, I opened that small can and found a brown labelled unknown at this point piece of crap cap. Bargains like this are no bargain. Time lost, terrible performance, failures and destruction of yours and my hard work make this extremely offensive so I have uploaded the pics to document my findings. Buyer beware, stick to trusted suppliers of quality components or suffer the loss. I won't be buying this stuff again. The seller was goodbuy711 with nearly 30,000 feedbacks and a 99.6% rating!!
Not exactly the "good buy" I was looking for!

I looked more closely at the cap inside all of this and it was a radial with leads extended out to make it axial, it was never even and axial cap! Being so small, I seriously doubt it would even be 22 uF and being dried out it probably wouldn't work even at low requirements for very long. Junk!
This is the link made by a fellow with an identical experience with caps from another eBay seller. http://reviews.ebay.com/Fake-RubyCon-El ... 0009070950
This sale was covered with ebay buyer protection, wish me luck

Unreal!
I had heard the stories before but haven't seen actual pictures of how they did it.
Thanks a lot for that sacrifice.

I don't really understand why they would do that?

That kind of borders on fraud doesn't it?

I seem to remember someone saying they opened up an Atom and it was the same deal....

[Bear]

When the composition is of the same sort and the capacitance is the same, what would account for difference of tone in the circuit from different filters? Was resistance measured? Some other measurable difference?

[Rick]

I found an article on fake Rubycons on ebay and decided to look what kind of "bargain" I fell for so I chopped open a recent cheap "Rubycon" 33 uF 450V axial. It was pretty sickening. There was a small 22 uF 450 v labelled rubycon inside the larger 33 uF 450V labelled can YK type. Worse yet, I opened that small can and found a brown labelled unknown at this point piece of crap cap. Bargains like this are no bargain. Time lost, terrible performance, failures and destruction of yours and my hard work make this extremely offensive so I have uploaded the pics to document my findings. Buyer beware, stick to trusted suppliers of quality components or suffer the loss. I won't be buying this stuff again. The seller was goodbuy711 with nearly 30,000 feedbacks and a 99.6% rating!!
Not exactly the "good buy" I was looking for!

I looked more closely at the cap inside all of this and it was a radial with leads extended out to make it axial, it was never even and axial cap! Being so small, I seriously doubt it would even be 22 uF and being dried out it probably wouldn't work even at low requirements for very long. Junk!
This is the link made by a fellow with an identical experience with caps from another eBay seller. http://reviews.ebay.com/Fake-RubyCon-El ... 0009070950
This sale was covered with ebay buyer protection, wish me luck

Unreal!
I had heard the stories before but haven't seen actual pictures of how they did it.
Thanks a lot for that sacrifice.

I don't really understand why they would do that?

That kind of borders on fraud doesn't it?

I seem to remember someone saying they opened up an Atom and it was the same deal....

It was not a sacrifice, it was a blessing. I can't imagine what would have happened if the thing would have worked with it long enough to get out the door somehow. They made 47 uF 450V counterfeits too, you can see one in the background in one of the pictures. I'm sure they are fake too since the leads are not sealed, they are just stuff through the black plastic end caps that are crimped in. They were cheap but not so cheap that it caused suspicion, at first. The free shipping should have given it away though. These caps just did not feel right or look right, but the open through hole end caps were a dead give away. It's funny how much trouble and manufacturing they went through to make these, it wouldn't be much harder to just make the cap properly I would think. I filed disputes and the seller says they will take care of it. They want to see the pictures, I wonder why they don't just take one of their precious fakes and cut it open themselves to see how they were made, they must have barrels of them

[Andy Le Blanc]

got to love a free market, I know too many who's faith is so strong they
won't believe it.
Imagine if you got one with the polarity reversed, wiz bang.....

[FYL]

Imagine if you got one with the polarity reversed, wiz bang.....

Like this?

[img:747:556]http://www.aingeal.com/misc/Atom.jpg[/img]

(US made and coming from a reputable distributor)

[Rick]

I was curious at this point to see what they put in my batch of 47 uF 450V Rubycon caps. It was the same story. The pics tell it.

[tedweber]

Hey Guys, I just heard of this yesterday.. We are investigating (tearing apart every value of ELON cap that we have). I have contacted "Telelong" who we have been buying these parts from; and will see how they respond. We are going to randomly 'test' each of the values and continue to randomly open them up to see what is going on over the next few days. If it is apparent that they deceived us; I will destroy all of the ELON caps that we have in inventory and vette a new supplier. I will, most likely, take these out of stock and only have a new suppliers versions for the amp kits (at first); then get larger quantities for individual sale.

I can assure you that I (and Ted) had no idea that this was an issue. We have been deceived as well.

I apologize and can assure you that this is an isolated issue to the ELON caps only; as we have torn apart other brands (including the 'Weber" branded caps, and the "Tung", "TH" types and do not have this scenario.

Thank you for your patience with this matter; it will be resolved soon

Sincerely
TA Weber

[Structo]

Thank you for addressing this TA.

That is a true reflection of your business model and will go a long ways with current and future customers.

Please keep us updated as to what happens.

[Andy Le Blanc]

Absolutely...... Thank you, must a total pain in the arse.

[M Fowler]

Thanks for the response TA much appreciated.

Mark

[ampdoc1]

I just got around to checking out some caps I bought from Weber a while back. Not deception, but double deception!

The cap was an axial marked ELON rated 450v 20uF. Inside was an ELON labeled radial cap rated 500v 20uf. AND, inside that was the actual radial (blue wrapper no name) rated 22uf 400V.

Somebody oughta get sued. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of these they've sold.

a'doc