From: usenet202101@magic-cookie.co.ukNOSPAMPLEASE   
      
   In article <4696384c-8b39-4bae-a924-81096d9b3da0n@googlegroups.com>,   
   pallison49@gmail.com says...   
   >   
   > **  Rifa  PME271  X2 caps are still made and widely available.   
   >     Strangely they are also the most expensive X2 caps on offer for no   
   >     good reason.   
      
   I got a handful of brand new PME271 Y caps a few years ago, for reasons   
   that I'm sure can't possibly have been good ones. All of them have   
   developed a couple of small cracks in the casing, just from sitting   
   unused in a parts box.   
      
   So if anyone was wondering if they'd fixed the defects in the design at   
   any point in the last 40+ years, apparently not.   
      
   > IME Rifa X2s are notorious for catching fire and filling the room with   
   > acrid smoke. Happened twice, right in front of me, first case was a   
   > room heater and the second with a portable TV.   
      
   Yep, they're a menace all right. These days I pre-emptively check any   
   mains-powered electronics from the 80s and 90s for them, which   
   thankfully meant I got them out of my Tek 2445A before they popped. Wish   
   I'd been more alert with the 2235A; I spent ages cleaning sticky brown   
   crud out of the crevices of that one.   
      
   And then there was the HP spectrum analyser where I thought I'd saved   
   myself a heap of trouble by extracting all eight(!) Rifa capacitors from   
   its power supply. Plugged it in, and half an hour later a thick cloud of   
   truly foul phenolic smoke poured out. Opened it up to find that it had   
   blown part of the case off its power inlet. Turns out that Schaffner   
   filtered power inlets can *also* contain Rifa (or very similar) caps,   
   concealed inside a metal casing and potting compound just to add extra   
   force and noxious smells to the eventual and inevitable explosion.   
      
   I'm pretty sure anyone who works on older electronics eventually   
   develops their very own rant about these accursed objects.   
      
   Rayner   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)