Fake capacitors?

[Navyblue]

Are these fake? I can not seem to find their datasheet anywhere. They are purchased from local stores.

First capacitor, please ignore the ceramic cap soldered across its leads. I can not find a Rubycon USP series, nor a 10000uF 35V with a 105 deg rating.

Second capacitor. (I can not find any datasheet for Samsung branded capacitor)

 

[Midnightmayhem]

I'd say if you suspect them of being fakes cut one open and post pics. Without some hard numerical data or actually seeing what is inside, we would have virtually no way of knowing. Just because you can't find a retailer that sells that exact brand, value and style of cap does not always mean it is a fake. What has got you feeling suspicious?

 

[Navyblue]

If I am sure that they are fake, I'll definitely rip it apart and take some pictures.

They look real to me, that's why I got them. What got me suspicious is I can't find any info on them.

Then after looking at the fake photos where they encase a cheap cap with known make, they seem to have one thing in common, which is the black plastic top. With my limited experience, I have never came across a cap with the black plastic top. But as I said, my experience are limited.

 

[djmiddelkoop]

I think they are fake.
The USP series are discontinued and existed only in 85 Deg,
see ( scroll to the bottom, Large Can Type Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors ) :
RUBYCON CORPORATION

 

[Navyblue]

For the first one, I think so too, thanks.

For the second one, it was from a different store. As said I can't find anything on it, I have no clear reason to suspect it is one or the other. But my feeling is they are fake too.

 

[Navyblue]

Did I just ruined a perfectly good capacitor?

What do you guys think of the construction? The liquid is kind of frozen underneath, is this how it is supposed to be? I wonder what is the purpose of that black plastic disc on top of the cylinder?

 

[linuxguru]

Did I just ruined a perfectly good capacitor?

The Rubycon is a probably a fake, the Samsung (now called Samwha) is real. Samwha makes middle-of-road general-purpose and industrial grade stuff, not particularly renowned for audio.

 

[JMFahey]

Who cares anyway?
Do they measure well or not?
As in capacitance/voltage/ESR/etc.

 

[Navyblue]

I care, and people who share the same roof as me probably do too.

If nobody cares, why do you care if they measure well.

 

[SY]

I think he means, why do you care if it's "really" Brand X if it works properly?

 

[JonSnell Electronic]

The black plastic disc is the vent. Rubycon have a very good name and to go to the expense of purchasing thousands of fake cans and then printing Rubycon on the plastic sleeve, seems very far fetched to me as the retail price of capacitors like these is only a few pennies. What would the point be?

 

[SY]

Printing fake plastic sleeves is between trivially cheap and zero. Especially when you look at it as marginal cost- they have to print a sleeve anyway, what does it cost to have it say "Rubycon" rather than "Excellent YangTze Capacitor"?

 

[Navyblue]

I think he means, why do you care if it's "really" Brand X if it works properly?

Even if it works properly, I would keep wondering "for how long?". It's like hiring a helper with a fake ID, I would try not to have the person in my home even if the person can work well.

 

[Navyblue]

The black plastic disc is the vent. Rubycon have a very good name and to go to the expense of purchasing thousands of fake cans and then printing Rubycon on the plastic sleeve, seems very far fetched to me as the retail price of capacitors like these is only a few pennies. What would the point be?

I don't know if you can see it from the picture, there doesn't seem to be any venting mechanism on the can, just a plastic disc on top of the can.

I know it can seem hard to understand why would a person want to fake something that isn't exactly expensive. But if people can go through all that trouble to fake eggs, that sells just a few cents less than the real thing, printing a few fake labels is nothing.

 

[SY]

It's nothing I'd buy- I only deal with reputable, large distributors like Mouser, Allied, Digikey, Newark... my assumption is always that if it's eBay or some private dealer from Asia, it's likely to be fake. The fakes may or may not work well, but it's not what I want in my equipment. I was just explaining what JMF was saying.

 

[FoMoCo]

Who cares anyway?
Do they measure well or not?
As in capacitance/voltage/ESR/etc.

There was one brand of fake capacitor (Lelon?)that had something wrong with the electrolyte. It would measure just fine. At first it worked fine. But, it aged terribly fast. In a few years it would measure wrong, explode, leak, damage other components, etc. For that reason, it's hard to tell by measurements or inspection.

 

[lcsaszar]

Is this a nested fake?

 

[JMFahey]

I think he means, why do you care if it's "really" Brand X if it works properly?

Yes, that's the point.

After all, the thread did not comment a single word about *how* it worked, only whether "they" could find it in a catalog or not, so I want to put things in perspective.

 

[SY]

There was one brand of fake capacitor (Lelon?)that had something wrong with the electrolyte. It would measure just fine. At first it worked fine. But, it aged terribly fast.

As Dell found out the hard way, it doesn't even have to be fake for that problem to happen!

oshifis, may I assume that this cap did not come from England?

 

[Navyblue]

Is this a nested fake?

I don't know, you may have to open that up.

But then we won't know how it measures.