Ceramic caps from China

[Ken Hahn]

Ceramic caps from China do tend to vary quite a bit in my experience, but often there is no stated tolerance to begin with.  I think the variance is more likely due to poor manufacturing processes rather than some master plan to defraud customers. Even the physical sizes in the same batch can be all over the map at times which is a good indication that their process controls are lacking.

The MLCC type seem to generally be better quality than the cheaper standard disc type.

I think China caps are fine for applications such as bulk bypass caps where values are not at all critical, but for any applications where the value or long-term stability is important I would recommend sticking with Kemet or a similar quality brand.  But keep in mind that even with those, the run-of-the-mill parts are often +80%/-20% tolerance unless you pony up for the higher spec stuff.

--- Ken

[JS]

I've bought one of those and came in without any marking on values, they were supposed to be some values out of the scale, all differents in tapes of 20. Ok, I removed one of each tape, measured and put the value on the tape for later use. There were all wrong as yours, some of them were replicated, so two tapes with the same value, of course some values missing, and some that weren't even close to any of the ordered values.

Is what you get from china. Even worse, in the same box I ordered 1% TH MF resistors, a bunch of them with almost every E24 value, I got 5% carbon ones... SMD resistors, some sensors seems ok, I also ordered LEDs, diodes, a few ICs but I never got to test them out. Still open to ask for reposition but I just don't know if it's worth it.

So, I do need to get some decent components assortments but I don't know where to get reasonable cheap but reliable components... Those folders Dave has are great but they look quite expensive just to have sitting around in case you need one of the batch. SMD passives in all the different sizes and values are impossible to have around, while fixing stuff in a location like mine that getting a component takes like a month or a 300km trip that's a pain, I know you can get away bodging a different size in the thing, but space or power rating are never fine with that.

JS

[james_s]

I've observed this same thing. I have a fairly accurate LC meter and was surprised when I checked some capacitors from a kit of cheap Chinese ceramic caps. I had to go through the whole collection of certain values to find a few that were even close to the rating. I don't expect high precision but I do expected much better than +-50%.