Conspiracy Theory: Companies use poor caps on purpose

[flexy]

Seriously, this is ridiculous.

Had a Samsung Plasma TV stop working which back then cost a TON of money. So I was pretty pissed. Opened it up, and low and behold I see TWO bulging caps, one even leaking black stuff.

Bought replacement caps worth about €1, three minutes soldering replacing the caps (VERY easy repair for me), Plasma is working like new again.

Some googling showed that the bad caps problem with Samsungs is indeed so wide-spread, folks in the US filed a Class Action Lawsuit.

Of course Samsung denied the problem even existed but nevertheless was compensating people for their repairs.

SAME THING happened some while ago with a brand name PC PSU of mine. Stopped working from one day to the other. Googled, found a picture of a bad, bulging cap in that PSU which looked EXACTLY like mine, same cap in the PSU. Again replaced it, PSU working like new and ever since.

Am I far off when I say that companies use those poor caps on purpose to artificially shorten life-times of electronics? I do, I really believe they do this on purpose. There is no other reason why a large company like Samsung etc. would use some low quality caps otherwise.

The "best" is if people have their TVs, monitors etc fail and then call "experts" like from Best Buy's Geek Squad (shudder), and those guys tell them it's not worth the repair and THEY SHOULD BETTER GET A NEW TV, from BB of course...

For a repair which takes any halfway versed hobby guy 10mins and $0.50 in parts...and fixes about 98% of non-working TVs, monitors...

 

[Dude111]

Im glad ya got her fixed so easily my friend 🙂

 

[corkyg]

"...There is no other reason why a large company like Samsung etc. would use some "Ching Chung Chong" low quality caps otherwise..."

How about simply lowering production costs by buying lowest bid?

 

[zir_blazer]

Look around for programmed obsolescence. Hardware that doesn't work is Hardware that has to be replaced, since technicians are expensive and many people prefer to purchase new instead of paying the repairing cost (Unless it was a high end part to begin with).
Using cheaper components is nearly a win-win situation - the only backslash could come from people that doesn't want to purchase the same brand again after a product fails. But since Samsung is usually one of the go-to brands, is hard to not purchase Samsung again even if you had a mediocre longevity experience.

 

[JimmiG]

I remember when there were actual TV repair shops...that repaired TVs. Nowadays noone repairs anything.
Sure, TVs today are much more complex than CRT's from the 90's, with tons of ICs, but chances are that it's still something simple like a blown cap. Those "experts" probably don't even open the TV to check (or they demand $200 to do it), just telling people to buy a new one instead.

 

[Charlie98]

It's in other stuff, too...

I'm a swimming pool service tech, one of the leading salt chlorinator systems has a laughably common failure on the PCB... where the 12v comes back to the PCB from the transformer, the regulator gets hot and burns the board. I've seen one that actually caught on fire. The manufacturer made a half-hearted attempt to revise the board, by adding a 'heat sink' to the board... but it doesn't work. It's stupid. People call and tell me the salt system is down, I ask what brand they have, and I just stop by the wholesaler on the way to the service call knowing 99.9% of the time what is wrong. It's a $500 replacement part... which is nice for me, but I've seen boards fail in less than a year... which is just bad business.

How about simply lowering production costs by buying lowest bid?

True as well... in our industry we have seen a switch in production from US/Mexico to China... and a resulting rise in initial and short-term failures of components like pump motors and other electrical appliances. I've got some original pump motors that are 15+ years old still running strong... and I've had some of these new Chinese motors (all else being equal) fail in 6 months. It extends to non-electrical components as well (plastic, PVC, polycarbonate, etc)

In a competitive marketplace... and I'm going to guess TV's are insanely competitive... every penny you can save in the production of an item matters.

 

[ronbo613]

No conspiracy, it's strictly cost. Say a quality capacitor costs three cents and a cheap one costs one cent. You say "it's only two cents", but it's two cents times a few million units and they may use the same capacitor over a period of years and on multiple products, so it winds up being a lot of money. Also, modern products are designed to be efficiently produced, not easily repaired.

Big business, no matter what they do or make, is strictly a numbers game. It's all about the bottom line.

 

[ultimatebob]

Most people would probably electrocute themselves if they tried to replace a capacitor on their TV.

 

[mvbighead]

No conspiracy, it's strictly cost. Say a quality capacitor costs three cents and a cheap one costs one cent. You say "it's only two cents", but it's two cents times a few million units and they may use the same capacitor over a period of years and on multiple products, so it winds up being a lot of money. Also, modern products are designed to be efficiently produced, not easily repaired.

Big business, no matter what they do or make, is strictly a numbers game. It's all about the bottom line.

Yep... it's pretty much all about a few cents spread over millions of units.

I've recently started intentionally using motherboards labeled 'solid caps' to ensure a decent longevity. Whether or not that is true, who knows, but it does make me feel better.

I will say, working computer repair for a while, the company I worked for used Biostar as their mainstream boards. For fit and function, they were usually decent. But there were several models where capacitors were FREQUENTLY a problem. It was a matter of opening the box and looking for capacitors, and we had an answer in a few seconds. That seem to be a thing of one model vs another, so it wasn't all or nothing.

But cheap capacitors definitely do drive folks to buy new gear ALL the time.

 

[JackMDS]

I remember when there were actual TV repair shops...that repaired TVs. Nowadays noone repairs anything.
Sure, TVs today are much more complex than CRT's from the 90's, with tons of ICs, but chances are that it's still something simple like a blown cap. Those "experts" probably don't even open the TV to check (or they demand $200 to do it), just telling people to buy a new one instead.

The issue is Nit 50 cents cap.

In the 90 the less complicated work was done by Human hands and thus cost much more. Today a large aspects of the sophisticated work of today is done by Robots (No vacation Fringe benefit, and Other perks).

When you have a business to deal with the whole process includes.

Open the TV find the problem dealing with it checking making calls to to get the parts, Check thoroughly the TV to make sure that there is No other causes to the initial problem and every thing is working, Doing the paper work etc., ends up with time spent.

Time spent is money and the whole 50 cents cap endt up with few hundred $$.

In the past consumer electronics were in the high hundreds into the thousands it make sense to fix.

As an Example, 32" HD TV sells these days for under $200. No point to fix it when time spent will cost more (regardless of what is wrong with it).

A lot of laptop starts to act out after two years. I have friends that "Go wacko" when ask to pay the price of buying a New Laptop to fix the one that they bought for give or take $400 two years ago.

When I log with them to eBay and show them that their "precious" (same model) Laptop is sold for fraction of the cost of the price that they paid they start to get the idea.



😎

P.S. It is very easy to sell Conspiracy Thoeries to the Ignorant". 🙂 - :hmm:.


.

 

[sm625]

If it is 3% cheaper it either makes the company 3% more profit and/or sells X% more units for even more profits. It doesnt matter until 5 years down the road no one buys that brand anymore because too many of them died after 2 years.

 

[LurchFrinky]

I would also think you would be less likely to purchase the same brand that just failed.
Companies are trying to make the most money while still hoping you will buy from them in the future. Sometimes, their choices are poor.

Conspiracy Theory not found.

 

[Revolution 11]

The best way to minimize your troubles with problems like these, OP, is to vote with your wallet. Don't buy from companies who had poor quality products or bad service and buy from companies that treat you well. Sometimes you will have to rely on anecdotal evidence before picking a product.

I always look for the worst-case problems before I buy a computer part or electronic device. See if other people are having problems and see how consistently those problems are occurring. For example, look at the negative reviews on Newegg. The more detailed the review, the more weight I assign it. Amazon allows you to see the most helpful negative reviews which is a good start.

You can't avoid all bad apples but a bit of research goes a long way here.