RIFA EMI caps [WAS: Re: VT100 PSU smelling.]

[Tothwolf]

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 01/23/2016 02:40 PM, Pontus wrote:
>
>> All I could find were new similar Kemet capacitors. Do you know if 
>> newer Kemet suffer from the same problem and I will regret buying them?
>
> I usually replace the Rifa capacitors with equivalent polyester safety 
> caps (X or Y rated).  Kemets are most common and work just fine.  It's 
> not a bad idea, if you're in a 240AC mains country to bump the AC 
> voltage rating up a bit.  I've seen too many line filters with 250VAC 
> rated caps labeled for either 120 or 240V use.  That would make me 
> nervous if I lived in a 240V country.

Kemet bought out Rifa and the parts from Kemet with the same P/N also use 
a paper insulator. Rifa used to tout the paper insulator as a selling 
point, but after seeing so many fail, I won't touch them, new manufacture 
or not.

I'm using Epcos brand polyester film safety capacitors as replacements. So 
far I've been able to match them up 1:1 with the correct physical sizes 
(lead spacing) and values.