Whats a caps purpose?

[Imshirazy 10+ year member]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. Can you recall everything that the guys down at CC told you?

huh??

what's with you and docutech..

I simply stated what a cap does and the scenario it will help in, with those sudden sharp bass hits. It's not going to help for long and dragged on low tones, so then you need a better alt + battery

I don't even know what CC is

circuit city???

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

It is best to have a great electrical system. Kind of a car audio duhhhh.

Caps have their place, but people use them as a 'patch' to solve all of their electrical problems. A cap has a shorter charge/discharge time than a battery, but a cap doesn't hold that much power thus it can not deliver much current for a very long period of time, and a good battery is worthless if you don't have a way to charge it while it is getting discharged. But, in most cases a battery is fast enough, and it is getting charged fast enough to keep a steady voltage.

You are best off to get a battery and alt. And if you really still want to and feel the urge a cap, but it is not a needed and there is a great possiblity that it will not help or change anything in any shape or form.

 

[UndercoverPunk 5,000+ posts]

Blashphemey!

 

[docutech 10+ year member]

Short, sudden bass hits yes (ie. Rock) you may see benefit. Long drawn out bass lines no, once the initial charge in the cap is spent it relies soley on the battery. When the battery's carge is depleated the Alt kicks in. Now the Alt is charging the battery AND the capacitor...dont forget, the bass goes on!...Hypnotizeeeeeee....

does that make sense?

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Short, sudden bass hits yes (ie. Rock) you may see benefit. Long drawn out bass lines no, once the initial charge in the cap is spent it relies soley on the battery. When the battery's carge is depleated the Alt kicks in. Now the Alt is charging the battery AND the capacitor...dont forget, the bass goes on!...Hypnotizeeeeeee....
does that make sense?

But assuming you did your system right and aren't pulling more current than the alt can handel you should be fine. You are running everything in parallel so the only issue that says what gets charged first is charge rate and by that standard since you will have a voltage drop due to time/cable issues the cap will only charge slightly higher than the battery...

For example...

200 Amp ALT.

System is pulling peak 205 amps AVG 120 AMPS

The ALT should be able to charge everything in the vehical, battery and cap. The cap is just a buffer so to speak and the charge argument would be no different than running 2 batteries. I am by no way saying that everyone should go out and buy a cap. But, they do have a purpose. Just not for most people... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

jesus there is a TON of misinformation in this thread.

A. Capicators hold a charge, and can discharge it virtually instantly.

B. Capicators DO drain current from your alternator, because they store it.

C. Capicators help maintain a constant voltage to equipment.

D. Capicators CAN be helpful to a stereo, IF the stereo is on an electric system with enough current to begin with, because they maintain a steady voltage for the equipment. but usually when the electrical system is sufficent, voltage does not drop much, and caps are not needed.

 

[atsaubrey 10+ year member]

I will only say that a QUALITY cap does have a major benefit. Always remember you get what you pay for. I personally use the Alumapro 15 farad version and it has cured all my dimming issues, the bass is much more precise, and my amps seem to run cooler. It was difficult coughing up $450 for it but I wouldn't be without it now. I used to have just 1000wrms on tap and had major dimming, I am now running nearly triple that and have 0 and I mean 0 dimming even running at full tilt. BTW the line at the bottom of my sig. was there before this thread started.

 

[UndercoverPunk 5,000+ posts]

I will only say that a QUALITY cap does have a major benefit. Always remember you get what you pay for. I personally use the Alumapro 15 farad version and it has cured all my dimming issues, the bass is much more precise, and my amps seem to run cooler. It was difficult coughing up $450 for it but I wouldn't be without it now. I used to have just 1000wrms on tap and had major dimming, I am now running nearly triple that and have 0 and I mean 0 dimming even running at full tilt. BTW the line at the bottom of my sig. was there before this thread started.

$450!

Could you please explain to me the quality difference between an expensive cap and a cheap on, and how that translated to real world benefit?

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

When the battery's carge is depleated the Alt kicks in.does that make sense?

No it doesn't because it's wrong. The order of priority for current supply is alt, cap battery. The alt is the source for all current in the car. When it is tapped out the voltage starts to drop and the cap *can* ease this drop to he point that the battery discharge voltage is reached. At this point the cap has done all it is going to do for this evolution of the current spike.

Now if you want to start looking at the math behind why a cap is not everything (or really anything) it's marketed to be, do some of the math. You will very quickly realize that a 1F cap will be spent much quicker than a single cycle of a bass note.

If you crunch the numbers for a capacitor, you will find that the usable charge in a capacitor (discharging from 14V to 12V the difference between alt voltage and battery voltage) is .5 amp seconds per farad. A single cycle of a 60hz note is 17ms. If you only had a single cycle of that 60hz note (pretty much never the case) and a 30A deficit (pretty small really when you consider that a 1kW amp will draw in excess of 100A for a hard bass note and a stock alt usually only leaves you with 30-40A to play with) the 1F cap would keep the battery from being tapped (in theory). Sound like a reasonable way to spend $100+?

What about the hybrid caps advertising 20F? Wow, you've moved up to a whole 10A*s of reserve and spent several hundred dollars. How about getting a battery that carries a high float voltage and has a reserve measured in amp hours rather than seconds for less money?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

How about getting a battery that carries a high float voltage and has a reserve measured in amp hours rather than seconds for less money?

I want one, I want one!!!!!!

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Decipha 10+ year member]

i have a 2 farad cap only reason i hooked it up was because it was given to me by a friend i did an install for... i honestly didn't notice any difference with the cap

 

[docutech 10+ year member]

Thats why enjoy this forum. So much information and so much yet to learn.

Thank you.