Buying a capacitor kit - how much does brand matter?

[Delicieuxz]

I'm looking to buy a capacitor kit, like this one:

https://www.amazon.ca/Tnisesm-Electrolytic-Capacitor-0-1uF%EF%BC%8D1000uF-Assortment/dp/B088PQMLKZ/

But it isn't a brand I've heard as being one of the good ones (Rubycon, Nichicon, Panasonic, Sony...).

If wanting to refurbish a bunch of vintage pedals, for them to last a long time, should I be looking for a better brand of electrolytic caps?

And are there also better brands to use in pedals for film caps and ceramic caps?

[ElectricDruid]

The brand matters "a bit". The better-quality caps you mention are generally more reliable and have better life expectancy, probably due to more robust quality control throughout the process. And that's true for film and ceramic caps too. My personal favourite film caps are the Wima box caps, but they *are* pricey and I don't use them on prototypes!!

But it's worth saying that most "classic" pedals were built with the cheapest parts they could find, sometimes whatever surplus was available (looking at you, EHX!). So in some ways, there's not too much point worrying about it a great deal. It won't make it sound any different, that's for sure.

[blackieNYC]

Those caps are fine, but the largest 25% of those caps might be considered too large in cap value for pedal stuff. 
But ordering caps from a catalog like Digikey can be confusing - too many options.  Consider putting together your own shopping list at Small Bear.  They've whittled down the selection to the most useful sizes and types.  With film caps also. 

[anotherjim]

They will be ok. But watch the voltage ratings. The 10v ones are too close to 9v for pedal builds although fine for any Arduino or other 5v projects. Nice to see some 33 values included, many packs are 1,22,47 only. 1000uF might come in handy for power supply/small amplifier projects.
I started over 15 or so years ago with a Velleman selection pack, still got some left. Never had one fail.

[antonis]

IMHO, if there isn't a tight timer matter (cap crucial value/tolerance/quality/lifetime e.t.c) use any cap looking "fresh & pretty",,

[PRR]

> it isn't a brand I've heard ...

It is a trademark, a trading-name, an office in China. I find electronics, fuel-lines, tools, heavy relays, and other loosely-related products under that name. They contract with factories to sell their products in the West. Tnisesm is two companies. The main company is Suzhou Yongtaite Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., and they don't show much on the web. Probably an old trader and a few assistants doing deals.

So the caps are mystery-products, but there is enough Tnisesm on the market that it won't be instant junk, OTOH Suzhou has a dozen other registered trademarks so if Tnisesm gets a bad reputation they will switch to another.

uxcell is another trading company and I bought several things from them. Some were just fine, some were crap.

At 5 cents each it may be a good deal, if you are very poor. And IF you can recognize a bad cap as soon as you put it in. For the novice, questionable parts is a very bad deal.

[anotherjim]

If the OP was in the UK, I'd recommend this...
https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_286&products_id=1990
Only common values, bagged - no bits box for these bits from Bitsbox! But nothing under 16v working either. They usually supply Suntan brand but that could change. Never had a problem with those either.

[idy]

Another thing to remember is that "most" of the electolytics "most" circuits use aren't in the audio path, but are there for power supply needs, LFOs...
There is one on a Tubescreamer.
Old fuzz boxes with their crazy low input impedance (and the expectation of driving other questionable loads) often have electrolytic for input and output.
But if you are going that route than maybe you want "pretty" ones, or axial leads or something "mojo".
I pick up Nichicon non-polarized (in pretty green) in a few values for these, "just for fun". A friend went crazy for a box that had them and I decided to live a little.

So look at the circuits you want to build. What values do you really need? Any circuits that need over 9v? Are they in the audio path? Do you need hundreds?

Oh, and ask how physically big they are. One specification even I understand. They really vary, but if you look, you can find big values and voltages in smallish sizes. Don't want to cram things in the box now, do we?

[bartimaeus]

i'd recommend smallbear's kit to start: https://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/electrolytic-radial-assortment/

electrolytic caps are usually the first electrical component to go bad in a pedal. you can often find "broken" dod pedals that just need a single electro replaced. if your pedal has a bunch of cheap electros, it'll probably need recapping in a decade or two. maybe that's long enough you don't care, but worth considering.

cheap and expensive electros will sound the same at first. but the cheap ones will probably start to sound different sooner, since electros decrease in value with age.

most ceramic caps are not great, so i wouldn't worry too much haha. for film, WIMA is one of the best, but Kemet is a solid brand too.

[amptramp]

Try Dave Cantelon at this site:

https://www.justradios.com/capkits.html

I use his film caps and have never had a failure.  I have a box of them sitting behind me right now.  He has up to 500 volt electrolytics for amps that need them.  He is located in Toronto.

[Rob Strand]

The brand matters "a bit". The better-quality caps you mention are generally more reliable and have better life expectancy, probably due to more robust quality control throughout the process. And that's true for film and ceramic caps too. My personal favourite film caps are the Wima box caps, but they *are* pricey and I don't use them on prototypes!!

But it's worth saying that most "classic" pedals were built with the cheapest parts they could find, sometimes whatever surplus was available (looking at you, EHX!). So in some ways, there's not too much point worrying about it a great deal. It won't make it sound any different, that's for sure.

If it's new hobby where you are trying things out and are going to be binning boards it's cheaper to use "ok" parts.  If you are going to do builds to keep with significant outlay in time and expenditure on enclosures and switches then it's not worth risking using crappy parts.

[ElectricDruid]

The brand matters "a bit". The better-quality caps you mention are generally more reliable and have better life expectancy, probably due to more robust quality control throughout the process. And that's true for film and ceramic caps too. My personal favourite film caps are the Wima box caps, but they *are* pricey and I don't use them on prototypes!!

But it's worth saying that most "classic" pedals were built with the cheapest parts they could find, sometimes whatever surplus was available (looking at you, EHX!). So in some ways, there's not too much point worrying about it a great deal. It won't make it sound any different, that's for sure.

If it's new hobby where you are trying things out and are going to be binning boards it's cheaper to use "ok" parts.  If you are going to do builds to keep with significant outlay in time and expenditure on enclosures and switches then it's not worth risking using crappy parts.

Yes, I agree. Use good parts where it counts. For testing or stuff you're just mucking about with, it isn't worth it. If you're repairing someone's super-expensive pedal, then ok, spend the extra dollar on the top-of-the-range caps/whatever.

I've got pedals in my workshop built with cheap parts and others built with expensive parts, and you can't tell one from the other on that basis (some *designs* are more noisy than others, but that's not a question of the components used). Perhaps in twenty years time, it will become more obvious, but by then it'll be up to my grand-nephews/nieces to give a sh!t!!

[andy-h-h]

If wanting to refurbish a bunch of vintage pedals, for them to last a long time, should I be looking for a better brand of electrolytic caps?

If they're vintage pedals that are still working, why change them?

[Delicieuxz]

If wanting to refurbish a bunch of vintage pedals, for them to last a long time, should I be looking for a better brand of electrolytic caps?

If they're vintage pedals that are still working, why change them?

If a cap fails, is there a change it will cause damage to other components (some of which could be irreplaceable in some vintage pedals)?

Some, like a vintage Electric Mistress and vintage Clone Theory, have serious LFO noise coming through, making the pedals basically unusable. I was told on the EHX forums a while back that "it might need the power filtering caps replaced or it could be as simple as one of the input or output wires running over the LFO section of the board, you can poke them around with a chopstick if you want. It could also be normal for these units, I've not played with this variant but the LFO Op Amp isn't a low current variety according to the schematic which can lead to tick."

I have a couple of Little Big Muff pedals I want to rehouse in a larger enclosure and give them the additional tone and gain controls of the big box variants, and I figure it'd be a good time to recap them while doing so.

For the rest, I'd probably take an as-needed approach, but would like to have the supplies on-hand.

[Rob Strand]

I've got pedals in my workshop built with cheap parts and others built with expensive parts, and you can't tell one from the other on that basis (some *designs* are more noisy than others, but that's not a question of the components used). Perhaps in twenty years time, it will become more obvious, but by then it'll be up to my grand-nephews/nieces to give a sh!t!!

It's true.

I'm not fond of modern electros because they definitely fail early in power supplies (even unstressed 50/60Hz stuff) and where things get hot.   I've developed a personal bias against them based on some surprisingly early failures on stuff I've repaired.   Just how long they last in non-PSU positions in a cool running pedals is up for grabs.   It might be a matter of the cap lasting 50 years for a good cap a 15 years for a cheap cap.   If I have to use cheap caps I'll choose 105degC models and/or higher voltages (if they fit).

[Rob Strand]

I posted this on electrolytic caps,
https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=129174.0

[niektb]

Yeah it's interesting, I was working on MTTF (mean time to failure) calculations the other day and discovered that every 10degC increase halves the lifetime of an elco. Imagine putting them very close to an LDO that's running very hot and that in a closed box (a pedal xD)...