Are capacitors good or bad?

[shpatb 10+ year member]

i bought a 12 farad stinger cap a year ago, no problems, but i just wanted to know if i wasted my money at the time, do they help? Would a 2nd battery been a better choice? i'm just curious and wanted to see what they're all about. thanks in advance.

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[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Did you search? No? You should try that. I bet this has been covered, this year, 100 times.

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Short....caps **** batteries are better. Do the big-3 before any of it, thanks and please pull around.

 

[wat 10+ year member]

add onions. no mayo

 

[shpatb 10+ year member]

i tried to search, maybe i'm just searching wrong, sorry... and i already have the big 3 done, my car doesn't dim or anything, just wondering about the caps overall productivity.

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

You already have it installed and don't seem to have any voltage issue. Why does it matter? It's not going to kill your system.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

caps are cool

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/beatdeadhorse5.gif.5d70132dea1eb89b73bf2fdbb6027dd6.gif :beathors: //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/beatdeadhorse5.gif.5d70132dea1eb89b73bf2fdbb6027dd6.gif

 

[DJ Nitrous 427 10+ year member]

Im probably going to get flamed but heres my opinion on the matter

If your looking for raw power for your larger amps..a cap isn't going to help at all...

A capacitor draws power from the vehicle and discharges very quickly to you amplifier...then it has to charge again before it can discharge...

If your amp is needing ALOT of power, the cap wont do anything but add an extra strain on you veh's elect. system.

Batterys discharge their power very slowly and that is why they are better for larger systems.

I currently have 2 nsb90s in the back of my truck now (8600A) and plan on getting 2 more... but I also plan on putting two large capacitors on my mid-bass amps...

I've got enough battery reserve to keep power to my sub amps for low notes but the caps will discharge faster than the batteries, making my mid-bass amps snapier

At least I hope it will... Im going to try it anyway

 

[shpatb 10+ year member]

i just wanted to learn more about what its actually doing, i realize that it distributes electricy faster and such, but i don't know how much power a farad actually is, can it be measured in amps or watts or anything?

 

[atsaubrey 10+ year member]

I am a firm believer in caps but people use them for the wrong reasons, like dimming issues. Yes the Big 3 and extra batteries should be the first to be added followed by caps. I do NOT believe in 1Farad or smaller caps. I believe alot in the Batcap gear (caps and batteries ftw) and Alumapro caps. I have had very good luck with these brands. For the people that suggest caps are useless, tell me why your amps have them inside?

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

A cap has it's place when used correctly with high demand amps. The main problem with alts is they do not increase their power output until a demand is made, through means of the regulator. Inbetween this time (we're probably talking tenths of a second) another source has to provide that power demand. Your battery does this. This is why, even with a HO alt and with good wiring, you can still dim with high demand amps. But extra batteries can also prevent this quick dip in voltage.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

For the people that suggest caps are useless, tell me why your amps have them inside?

Filtering. If a bigger cap would help with something, why didn't the amp manufacturer use bigger/more caps in the amp? Your computer, iPod, pocket calculator, and pretty much every other electronic device have caps in them as well, you should add big caps to them as well //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

A good battery can discharge at a higher voltage (what really matters) and deliver orders of magnitude more current than any cap.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

I am a firm believer in caps but people use them for the wrong reasons, like dimming issues. Yes the Big 3 and extra batteries should be the first to be added followed by caps. I do NOT believe in 1Farad or smaller caps. I believe alot in the Batcap gear (caps and batteries ftw) and Alumapro caps. I have had very good luck with these brands. For the people that suggest caps are useless, tell me why your amps have them inside?

FYI a 'batcap' is nothing more then a bunch of lead-acid cells..... ITS A BATTERY...

To the OP... the large carbon caps such as your 12Farad are useless in car audio... you wasted your money, big time... the 1F cans do stabilize voltage fluctuations as intended... but at $100+ each they are hard to justify having...

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

What do you guys think of the Batcap Powerpack? It's a batcap 600 battery with a 35F capacitor in-one.