[Arran]

First a Sea Story.

1983 I was on a USG trip to China, inter alia, to take a look at their manufactoring capabilities. In one particular factory, I was observing the capacitor production system. At the end of the process were some rather impressive looking capacitor testing machines. But they were testing the capacitors by hand. I watched one young lady testing about 60 units per minute but it seemed she would throw units in the "bad bucket" independent of what the meters on the testor said. When I asked why the reply was something to the effect "...we are very proud of our quality control, we test each unit individually. We are expected to find 10 percent that failed the test, no more no less." Thus the red light blinked bad unit, but it went in the "good bucket" and the green light blinked good and it went into the "bad" bucket. I exagerate somewhat, but in a nutshell that was what was going on.

My question is are there some bad apples as far as capacitors out there, exp electrolytics? Are the high voltage "mini electolytics" okay to use?

I pick on capacitors because I think they are the weak link in those old radios.

Even though that was a while ago it does explain why there is a ten fold difference in worker productivity between a Chinese worker and a U.S worker, it may be changing but indescriminately sorting caps that way is going to cut into the productivity and bottom line of the company making them. I for one never install a cap in a radio without testing it first on a capacitor checker, so far I haven't had any problems with the polyester film caps but have had problems with the odd cap that I bought from a surplus mailorder outfit. Chinese made elctrolytic caps are something that I would stay away from if possible, especially the no-name ones. There were some bogus Nichicon caps around about five years ago that caused a lot of problems but I think that brand or any of the other Japanese, American, or German brand ones would be safe so long as they come from a reputable dealer and not a fleabay seller.
Regards
Arran