- Aug 11, 2001
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TLDR; looking for 12VDC wall warts >2A current rated, with a screw together housing, 5.5mm OD and 2.1mm (and) or 2.5mm ID barrel plug, as commonly found on networking equipment.
Used to be, capacitors in networking equipment failed before anything else. I adapted, now will replace caps in even new (if budget so don't mind a blown warranty) equipment, except now the NEXT early failure point is the caps in those infernal sealed AC/DC wall wart power adapters.
I've forcefully popped open several, replaced the caps, back in service, even drilled vent holes in the casing before gluing it back together. I have no complaints doing so but feel like I'm just pushing back the failure to the 3rd most common failure point, plus now I have a ton of old AC/DC warts that are very old.
Some of you will have no idea what I'm talking about because you replace all network gear every few years, and while I do upgrade, I'm also interested in keeping what I have working, and having spares for who-know-what scenarios like a random power surge, to have spare AC/DC wall wart adapters on hand as I always did, but the current requirements crept up.
For example, used to be, a simple router or modem could run off a 1A, 12V adapter. Then the nicer ones added USB ports, and then there's external HDDs which if 3.5", need at least 1.5A and usually more than that.
SO, in search of universal replacements, okay not really universal but talking 12VDC output, and 2A or higher current rating (higher being better until it requires an IEC/etc extension cord which takes up a lot of space and an aesthetic mess to look at), what have been your go-to replacement PSU options? Trying to narrow the field a bit, I'm talking 12VDC, 2A or higher (higher still is far better), with 5.5mm OD barrel plug, 2.1mm or 2.5mm ID (I have need for both/either, can swap connectors if I must).
In a moment of OCD, I searched at the usual suspects and the best I found that's major brand was this:
www.goldmine-elec-products.com
At $4 each (edit: sale over, now $6 ea.) it's a very good price, but 2A is the absolute minimum and would rather higher current than that, plus unlike some other Netgear wall warts I've encountered, it doesn't have a casing held together with screws so brute force would be needed to open it for repair, something I seek to avoid in the future, plus even in the first place, I'd prefer to have vent slits or add my own without having to brute force it open.
To some of you this might seem like a strange obsession but controlling thermals and being able to replace capacitors, has been my key to achieving very long life out of networking equipment, without spending a boatload more on enterprise grade gear that also takes up a lot more space in a rack.
Anyway back to my original query which is do you have a source for high quality, low cost replacements for the AC/DC wall wart 12VDC adapters?
Above 2A current rating, major brands seem to climb in price pretty quickly. I literally just bought an entire router with a 2.5A (might be higher, specs conflict on this) PSU for $13 because it seemed to kill two birds with one stone to have a backup router to swap in for any emergency purpose. I'm sure someone will want to know what but this particular router was primarily chosen because those that have USB ports, tend to have higher than 2A PSU from the major brands:
My network equipment failures aren't frequent, but avoidingfailures downtime matters, having spares and want to know if others have found especially good values in any particular AC/DC12V supplies for networking equipment. I'm sure there are more nit-picky qualifications I could add but for now, want some input before switching over to tethered bricks rated for more and needing the extra space to locate them. If I wanted to do that I already have accumulated several bricks.
I expect the status quo is just "I upgrade and it comes with a new AC/DC PSU". I get that, but my universe is constantly expanding and some things need to keep working even after supplemented with new things.
Used to be, capacitors in networking equipment failed before anything else. I adapted, now will replace caps in even new (if budget so don't mind a blown warranty) equipment, except now the NEXT early failure point is the caps in those infernal sealed AC/DC wall wart power adapters.
I've forcefully popped open several, replaced the caps, back in service, even drilled vent holes in the casing before gluing it back together. I have no complaints doing so but feel like I'm just pushing back the failure to the 3rd most common failure point, plus now I have a ton of old AC/DC warts that are very old.
Some of you will have no idea what I'm talking about because you replace all network gear every few years, and while I do upgrade, I'm also interested in keeping what I have working, and having spares for who-know-what scenarios like a random power surge, to have spare AC/DC wall wart adapters on hand as I always did, but the current requirements crept up.
For example, used to be, a simple router or modem could run off a 1A, 12V adapter. Then the nicer ones added USB ports, and then there's external HDDs which if 3.5", need at least 1.5A and usually more than that.
SO, in search of universal replacements, okay not really universal but talking 12VDC output, and 2A or higher current rating (higher being better until it requires an IEC/etc extension cord which takes up a lot of space and an aesthetic mess to look at), what have been your go-to replacement PSU options? Trying to narrow the field a bit, I'm talking 12VDC, 2A or higher (higher still is far better), with 5.5mm OD barrel plug, 2.1mm or 2.5mm ID (I have need for both/either, can swap connectors if I must).
In a moment of OCD, I searched at the usual suspects and the best I found that's major brand was this:
G25654 -
www.goldmine-elec-products.com
At $4 each (edit: sale over, now $6 ea.) it's a very good price, but 2A is the absolute minimum and would rather higher current than that, plus unlike some other Netgear wall warts I've encountered, it doesn't have a casing held together with screws so brute force would be needed to open it for repair, something I seek to avoid in the future, plus even in the first place, I'd prefer to have vent slits or add my own without having to brute force it open.
To some of you this might seem like a strange obsession but controlling thermals and being able to replace capacitors, has been my key to achieving very long life out of networking equipment, without spending a boatload more on enterprise grade gear that also takes up a lot more space in a rack.
Anyway back to my original query which is do you have a source for high quality, low cost replacements for the AC/DC wall wart 12VDC adapters?
Above 2A current rating, major brands seem to climb in price pretty quickly. I literally just bought an entire router with a 2.5A (might be higher, specs conflict on this) PSU for $13 because it seemed to kill two birds with one stone to have a backup router to swap in for any emergency purpose. I'm sure someone will want to know what but this particular router was primarily chosen because those that have USB ports, tend to have higher than 2A PSU from the major brands:
My network equipment failures aren't frequent, but avoiding
I expect the status quo is just "I upgrade and it comes with a new AC/DC PSU". I get that, but my universe is constantly expanding and some things need to keep working even after supplemented with new things.
Last edited:
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