On 01/23/2016 01:26 AM, Tothwolf wrote:
They can. The translucent yellow Rifa (now owned by Kemet) class X/Y safety capacitors in particular have a 100% failure rate and are on my replace-on-sight list. They usually begin to show visible signs of cracking in their outer casing before they finally go out with a bang. It seems to be due to chemical decomposition of the paper insulator which swells over time and causes the case to crack. I usually replace them with a film capacitor from Epcos of the same value and safety class.
I have heard similar from a few other places. And I'm replacing a five of these in a bigger SGI PSU as preventive maintenance. A few of them are showing cracks.
All I could find were new similar Kemet capacitors. Do you know if newer Kemet suffer from the same problem and I will regret buying them?
Thanks, Pontus.
