Capacitors?

[green 95 firebird]

well,
i need a cap for my system. i'm about to buy a (ACAP4) 1 Farad Capacitor 20-24 Volt Surge for $80 from a friend. is that a good buy or should i buy something else, because i'm gonna spen like $15-$20 on a meter. so should i go with a better company or should i buy that one. btw, who makes the best caps? i was also thinkin; that since i'm getting everything Kicker for my system, i should go w/a Kicker Cap? what do you think?

thx

--pete

Edit: title change for archive

[ June 10, 2002: Message edited by: MTMike ]</p>

[megabass]

It really doesn't matter on the manufacturer. You never know, the same place might make them all and different companies put their names on them. Anyway, $80 bucks sounds high, especially used. I've seen them lower on ebay. I wouldn't bother with the monitor either. It's a waste IMO.

http://web.camaross.com/bb/Forum4/HTML/005028.html

[ January 17, 2002: Message edited by: megabass ]</p>

[OneQuickV6]

I would say one cap is just as good as another. They all do the same thing when it comes down to it. They may claim to have benefits, but not really in the end.

[Reverend_Ezekiel]

Get the cheapest one you can find, they are allt he same!

[Camaro Bob]

Not all caps are the same. WTF? That's like saying a 250 watt Road Gear amplifier from WalMart is the same as a 250 watt RF, or Kicker,etc. After all, they all do the same thing, right? No. With caps (power capacitors) the brand makes a difference in their reliability, capacitance, life expectancy, and many other areas. If you want the absolute best power cap, go with the Pheonix Gold caps. They are wanderfull. Also, it depends on your stereo power range. They say one farad of capacitance is good for one thousand watts. But, add headlights and your voltage still might fall a bit short. Only if you want the best, go for the more expensive Pheonix Gold caps. They come in a variety of sizes. I went with the fifteen farad cap with my dual Rockford Fosgate Power BD 1500.1 Mono's (Running Four Kicker Solobaric 12's @ one ohm paralleled). It worked wonderfully. Also, with a bigger cap you don't have to worry about the meter. You always have plenty of back up power. Great for comp also. I guess if you are just wanting a cheap alternative, go with the one farad "Lightning Audio" or whatever you choose. But to let you know, a premium used one farad cap should sell for $50 bucks or less. Hope I helped. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[v6maro]

I have a lightning audio ca that I got for $130 brand new, it's a 1farad and has a monitor on it, the monitor looks cool BTW, but not usefull
Most cap are the same, but there ARE some better ones out there.
you get what you pay for, keep that in mind
-Steve

[Camaro Bob]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> Most cap are the same, but there ARE some better ones out there.
you get what you pay for, keep that in mind <hr></blockquote>

yup. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[OneQuickV6]

Ok, sorry but that's off. You say "you always have back up power" available...But caps don't deal in power, they store charge. I could right at build a home made cap that holds a farad of charge, and it would work. I used to sell Phoenix Gold, and I've seen one burn up just as quick as the no name off brand. I beleive you gte what you pay for in amps, speakers, HU's, and a lot of other electronics...but caps are caps. And 15 farad!? One of the loudest stereo systems I ever helped desoign and build had 10 12" JLW3's, and 5 of PPI's largest, meanest amps. All this in an old blazer that should have eben dead long ago. My point, we simply upgraded to a red top Optima battery and a few 1 farad off name caps. Wire those few caps the right way and you have the equivalant of one 6 farad cap. It never so much as dimmed a blinker, much less a dome light or head light. They have a lot of websites out there to back this one up. I'll find one as quick as I can to show..

[MTMike]

Caps are just a storage tank.

Think of it like this... you have a river, but too many people are pulling water out of it, so the river's not flowing well and every other water user is coming short on their needs of water. What do you do? Build a dam (aka install a cap). That creates a reservoir, so everyone has a big pool to get water from, and noone is left high-and-dry. Does this increase the flow of the river? NOPE! It just created a reservoir. The same amount of water is flowing thru as before the dam, but the reservoir is there.

If you want a reservoir, get a cap. If you want more flow, get a higher output alternater and/or a dual/auxilary battery setup and don't worry about a cap.

If you're drawing more current than your alternator can put out, a cap is just a "Band-Aid" on a much bigger problem.

Hope this helped.

-Mike

[OneQuickV6]

Good words. Agreed. If you ever get erady to take any science elective courses or technical non-major courses....Some physics courses will cover this stuff, and almost all intro to electrical engineering courses will. EE is my major!

[Camaro Bob]

Yeah, EE is my major too. I've had three years of electronics, and engineering computing, physics 1 and 2, and several other classes. I ran the 15 farad cap knowing it was over doing it, but damn, isn't four solo 12's over doing it too. I was supporting a mass of neon lighting also. The Pheonix gold cap has ought guage input and four four guage outs. It was titanium series. Yes, a large block cap, not a round cap. It is in the same chasis as the ZX400ti. They call it the Powercore. I was running it in my old car and I had major voltage problems. I had a 1000 amp deep cycle interstate battery also. And I still had problems. I know that the caps don't deal with power(in watts), I was using that phrase in a sybolic sense. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I didn't mean for anyone to go out and buy the Powercore, I just used that as my example on how I saved my old charging system. It worked great. I kept having losses when I was running Lightning Audio, and I must have replaced three or four of their single farad caps. That's why I chose the Powercore(Plus, I got a hell of a deal on it...$550 if I remember correctly, cheaper than 6 f%$#ing Lightning Audio's). And in general, I've seen the Pheonix Gold caps out last any other cap I've ever owned. I was trying to reccomend a product that I see as my favorite on the market. Everyone has preferences. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[Camaro Bob]

If you want to check out the powercore, here it is: Powercore It truly is a beauty when it comes to caps.

[bpipe]

yes a cap only stores power but what counts is how "clean" the power is and how fast it can release and regain the power. if you go cheap you will have a greater chance of noise and interferance. you want quality not quantity!!!!!

[Camaro Bob]

Exactly my point. Pheonix gold is quality. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[OneQuickV6]

I don't wanna argue, but caps are constantly sending their stored charge to amps and other electrical items in the line. Electricity and charge travels just as fast out of cheap caps as the expensive ones.