Had a power supply go up in smoke at a repair shop in Denver last month

I was working on this old stereo receiver at my buddy's shop in Denver when the power supply just let go. Sparked real bad and smelled like burnt plastic for hours after. Turns out the filter caps were way past their rated life and one blew short. Now I always check the date codes on electrolytic caps before even plugging anything in. Anybody else had a unit surprise them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliotm5717d ago

Smelled a capacitor blow once that had such a strong fishy smell I thought a cat had crawled into the chassis and died. Took me a week to get the stink out of my basement workshop. Definitely makes you pay more attention to those old electrolytics before flipping the switch.

sanchez.mary17d ago

Yeah that fishy smell is unmistakable once you've had it a couple times. @elliotm57 I always keep a window fan running in my shop now when I'm working on anything with old caps, just in case. Another trick is to sniff around the board before you power it on with a new cap, because sometimes the old one already leaked a little and that smell lingers. Honestly, I also tape a dryer sheet over the exhaust fan in the window, it helps cut the stink without blocking air flow.

carter.joseph17d ago

Honestly I gotta push back on this a little. The fishy smell thing is way overblown by the online crowd, I think it's more confirmation bias than anything. I've had plenty of old caps vent on me over the years (mostly in cheap stereo gear) and the smell was usually more like burnt toast or hot plastic than dead sea life. Maybe some specific brands or chemistries smell different, but the whole "unmistakable fish odor" thing feels like a myth that gets repeated so much people start smelling it even when it's just dust burning off. Plus if you're really worried about it, just let the gear sit powered off for a day and then sniff the vents before plugging in, that'll tell you way more than any hard rule about a fishy stink.