General purpose vs. low ESR caps

[Saltfrog]

I'm new to the forum and have been learning quite a bit from all of the helpful posts. I recently ordered some panasonic fm low esr caps to replace bulged caps on sanyo plasma psu.

From all my reading it seems I should only be using low esr caps on power supplies. Part of my order has some general purpose panasonic caps as well. Should I hold off and reorder low esr or put the general caps in?

I've read so much about knock off caps and what people have seen Ive rarely read what happens when people use radio shack generics or the like. Hate to waste the Panasonic and nichicon ones I got knowing now that they are general purpose.

Additionally I did use some nichicon caps for a psu and I believe they were not low esr and the tv works great. Should I expect them to fail prematurely, explode or damage the tv? Should I go pull those two out and swap them with what I know are low esr as soon as possible?

Appreciate any advice on this!

[stj]

Re: General purpose vs. low ESR caps

it's not low vs normal - if only it was that easy.

you have normal - that i never use.
then you have normal but high temperature and long life.

then you have lower ESR stuff like rubycon YXF / YXG and panasonic FC

then you have low ESR like panasonic FM / FR etc.

then you have ultra-low suff like rubycon MBZ / MCZ etc.

look at the pdf.

what you need to do, is look up the specs on the original cap and then find a similar or SLIGHTLY better replacement from a good company like pana.

tbh in most cases something like FM or FR will work well, ultra-low esr is just for high-frequency vrm-psu's on pc motherboards & stuff.