On Tue, 08 May 2012 00:22:43 -0400, wrote:

Is this bad capacitor thing "planned obsolescence"?
It must be. That's all I hear in the last decade. Computers, and other
electronics, ballasts, and the list goes on.......

Back in the 1960's and 70's I worked on electronics as a hobby and did
repairs. Much of the stuff was old vacuum tube stuff and early
transistor stuff. I *rarely* had to replace caps. It was normally a
tube, transistor, bad connection, or a bad potentiometer. When a cap
went bad, the device did nto stop working, just there would be hum in
the speaker from a weak filter cap. Much of the stuff I worked on was
20 or 30 years old. In fact I still have a 1940's tube type shortwave
radio and it still has the original caps and works well.

You'd think that with our technology that caps would be BETTER than they
used to be..... instead they're junk. If they want to keep putting
these foreign made junk caps in our electronics, maybe everyone should
stop buying the crap until they begin using good caps. I'm sure they
can make good ones......

MOST are now better than they were 10 years ago. There was a batch of
counterfeit electrolyte out there from guess where - it starts with ch
and ends in a.

Capacitors from even the best manufacturers ended up affected.

That crap has worked its way out of the system -more or less.

No telling what is in some of the cheap crap coming out of there today
- but at least now the problem is known.

That sort of explains my point about the old electronics still working.
Particularly when the old vacuum tube stuff produced a lot more heat
around the caps. I could be wrong, but as far as I know, all those old
caps were made in the USA. Sprague, and Mallory come to mind as the top
brand names from that era. Maybe if America started making electronics
including the components, we would once again have reliable equipment.
That old stuff was made to last, but these days is made to generate a
fast dollar and create lots of pollution during the discard and trash
phase. Whatever happened to "American pride". There is not one fully
made in America electronic item made these days and I hear it's the same
with cars. Even American made cars have parts made all over the world.