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Warning: Don't trust that YouTube guy with 500k subs on capacitor replacement
Watched a popular repair channel say you can always substitute a 400V cap for a 250V one. Tried it on a monitor power board, cap blew after 2 hours because the ripple current rating was way off. Has anyone else gotten burned by bad advice from big channels?
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the_wesley1mo agoMost Upvoted
Nope, I used to defend that guy hard too. I remember watching his cap replacement video on a Dell monitor and thinking "hey this is a lifesaver." But then I tried swapping a 250v cap for a 400v one on a Samsung TV power board last year, same deal as you. The cap didn't explode but it ran super hot and the TV started flickering after a couple hours. I pulled it out and the ripple current rating was like 300mA on the new cap versus the original 800mA. Taught me real quick that voltage rating alone isn't the whole story, those cheap high voltage caps from the grab bag just don't handle the switching frequencies right.
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ericfox1mo ago
Ngl, you probably skimped on the ESR rating or had a cheap cap. A quality 400V with the right ripple current spec would have been fine in most cases, that channel isn't wrong for general repairs.
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burns.ruby1mo ago
A buddy of mine tried the same thing @ericfox on an old Dell PSU and thought he was being smart with a 450v cap. Thing didn't blow up but the whole board smelled like a burnt toaster after 20 minutes. He just buys the exact part now no matter what the YouTube guys say.
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