Resistor manufacturer

[tkamiya]

I am looking at buying through hole registers for a project.  1/4 watts, metal film, 1%, otherwise nothing special kind.

Looking at Digi-key, at low end, there is Stackpole electronics and Yaego, and at high-end, there is Vishay.  For jellybean parts, what do you prefer?  Being originally from Japan, I'm used to Panasonic and few others, but they seem to be hard to obtain here in US.  I have a kit from Amazon made by unknown brand.  I use them for playing around but I really don't want to use them for anything serious.

[sandalcandal]

Not sure why you are deliberating over manufactures for a part as simple as a 1/4W 1% resistor? I could not think of a more jellybean part. Unless its a high reliability application in which case you'd want some QA/certs to go with it then it really doesn't matter. It's pretty hard to screw up something as simple as a metal film resistor. I'm fine using "cheap" brands like multicomp.

Biggest difference I've noticed in quality is the leads sometimes aren't as tolerant to poor bending practice on cheap and no name components. The actual function is the same, its a resistor?

[tkamiya]

There are plenty of flimsy resisters with overly thin wires floating around all over internet shops.  Some brands are known to be inaccurate well beyond tolerance specs. 

Even though it's "just a register", it's an important part of any circuitry.  I plan to stock a good amount.  It'll probably end up with few hundred dollars in expenditure.  Starting out with ones I can trust is a big deal for me.

[sandalcandal]

Fair enough. I only purchase through the big distributors and have never personally had issues. If I want to check a junk bin resistor is good I'll measure it before using it. If its not just one off for a project and you want a big solid stock pile of reliable resistors then fair to pay some premium.

Edit: Be sure to check out other distributors like Mouser, Arrow, Farnell/Element14, RS components etc. Digikey has been on a bit of a slide lately

[Dabbot]

If you want some cheap but decent offerings:
- Royal Ohm from https://www.tme.com
- Multicomp from element14 / Farnell
- TE Connectivity

[tkamiya]

I buy regularly from DigiKey.  I really don't have any problems with it.  Rare times I did have an issue or two, representatives were very fast to take care of them. 

[S. Petrukhin]

Visit LCSC https://lcsc.com/ - there are the same brands, but without extra charges for the name and show-offs. A good Chinese supplier, sends the order in 24 hours, DHL delivers in 5 days to Russia, to the USA, I think it will be even faster.

[james_s]

I've never had a problem with resistors I've bought from DigiKey. The only garbage resistors I've encountered are from random China sellers. Those ones with unusually thin leads are junk, I throw them away. Even if they're within tolerance, the thin leads are difficult to work with and mechanically weak.

[coppercone2]

you need to inspect digikey resistors because I saw them shipped with rust on the leads, totally unacceptable for manufacturing. Actual red rust on a jelly bean part is how you will mess up a ignored jelly bean part

[rsjsouza]

I haven't had trouble buying through hole resistors before but, to be honest, for the hobbies I tend to use salvaged resistors from zillions of disassembled equipment.

The fact I find extremely relaxing to desolder parts from boards is a side benefit of this approach.

[james_s]

I used a lot of salvaged parts when I was a kid, but these days I feel like life is too short to search for the value I need every time. I still keep a box of scrap boards around but the only time I actually raid them for parts like resistors is when I've forgotten to order one of the values I need and haven't found it in my parts stock either.

[Whales]

I get most of my 1/4 through-hole resistors from eBay.  I've never tested to see if they're really metal film or what % tolerance, but they've always been fine for my uses.    If I'm doing an order with a big supplier (LCSC, Digikey, etc) then I also tend to throw some values I'm low on onto the order.

My only lesson so far: don't buy 1/8 watt resistors (even though they're so cute!), their leads are too thin to reliably work in breadboards.

[switchabl]

Tayda also offers Royal OHM, quite cheap and decent quality.
https://www.taydaelectronics.com/resistors/1-4w-metal-film-resistors.html
(a few values not available as Royal OHM and of unknown quality - avoid)

The minimum qty is just 10+, so this is an interesting option if you want a (mostly) complete E24 kit and don't need 100 of each value. They have a special order page to make that easy: https://www.taydaelectronics.com/resistors/1-4w-metal-film-resistors/test-group-2.html

But then if you really just need a couple of values and have no special requirements, basically any name-brand from the big distributors should be just fine and the price will probably be just about irrelevant.