jmke

Not all electrolytic capacitors are manufactured equally. Japanese and solid caps have better quality, protecting your equipment from the infamous capacitor leakage problem and also increasing the life-span of your equipment, especially if it works at high temperatures, like it is the case with power supplies. In this short tutorial we will teach you how to identify Japanese capacitors and why they have a better quality.

Japanese capacitors are notoriously known by their above-the-average quality (good electrolyte and good sealing), while Chinese capacitors have the bad reputation of using cheap electrolyte and cheap sealing, what can lead to the problems we explained. Solid capacitors are also immune to the above problems as they provide the best possible sealing.
Identifying solid capacitors is easy, as they have a complete different physical aspect (see Figure 1). But how can you tell whether a given electrolytic capacitor is Japanese or not?

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/595

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