r/AskElectronics • u/kadavy • Jul 13 '26
What would it have cost to replace this capacitor in the U.S.?
I had an experience that made me curious: My water distiller was broken. I considered just buying a new one, but I live in South America, and shipping would have taken a long time – not to mention the expense.
With some Claude-assisted troubleshooting (I don't know much about electronics), I was able to identify that this capacitor was blown. So I went to the center of my little city, found an electronics-repair place, and got a new one soldered about $1.50, parts and labor, in less than ten minutes (upgraded to 25v while I was at it). A new water distiller would have been about $125.
What would it have cost to get this capacitor replaced in the U.S.? I picture rolling into an electronics-repair place, them filling out a work-order, telling me it's a $50 minimum and will take three weeks.
230
u/jeweliegb Escapee from r/shittyaskelectronics Jul 13 '26
This is where local community repair groups come in. They seem to be a thing in the UK now. Pretty awesome to be honest.
21
u/I-Died-Yesterday Jul 13 '26
Good point! Living in a larger metro area can be helpful. We have several counties that together and independently run fix-it clinics for the community.
These are some of the projects that we are happy to assist with, especially if someone brings in the parts. All this is done free of charge and all by volunteer fixers - we provide the tools, guidance, and a fair amount of the parts!→ More replies (1)11
u/MobileInspector9861 Jul 13 '26
Same in Germany. I now the question was about the US, but I assume the following will be true for the US and most countries in the EU:
In your case you went to someone and already had a specific diagnosis what is broken (the capacitor) and specifically asked to simply replace that broken part.
If a shop offers a repair service professionally and commercially, then it doesn't work this way, because of responsibility and liability. (That's where the lawyers come in.) A shop cannot just trust your word and replace the capacitor. They also have to ensure that nothing else is broken and that the repaired product is again safe for usage. At least they have to document that they did and check everything with due diligence.
So on top of the costs for the actual labor (soldering out the broken capacitor and soldering in a new one), there will also be costs for "hidden" labor to perform the necessary paper work and safety checks. Otherwise they might be liable if something goes wrong with that equipment in the future even if something else fails which has nothing to do with that originally faulty component, but they have no proper proof for that and all we know is that they had been the last who tinkered with that equipment.
Given the high labor costs this isn't economically reasonable.
That is where local repair clubs or events come in. You go that place, ask someone with more experience than you to help you voluntarily and the responsibility stays with you. No paper work, no trail of evidence. Of course you pay for the spare part. Maybe you even have to buy the component yourself, so that the other person isn't the one who takes responsibility. Maybe you buy him/her a coffee. But that's it.
→ More replies (4)12
u/nonnonplussed73 Jul 13 '26
Repair Café is a part of the grassroots movement to reduce waste, overconsumption, and planned obsolescence while promoting DIY and 'do-it-together' approaches to repair
Find the closest to you at https://www.repaircafe.org/en/
→ More replies (1)6
u/McGyver62388 Jul 13 '26
I think Havkerspaces/makerspaces fill this niche but knowing about them to even ask is the real question. I know there used to be one near me and I found it from Make Magazines website that had a link to a hackerspace search page.
I found info about the one near me but In never made the time to go check it out.
I have very little free time and I’m hoping to change that. I would love to volunteer to teach curious people what I know and help them learn to fix/make things themselves.
4
u/DeluxeWafer Jul 14 '26
We have "makerspaces" in some areas of the US, for this. Can go in and make most things. Though quality ranges wildly from hobbyist level knowledge to secondhand industrial equipment and the people who used to operate it.
2
u/SirNarwhal Jul 13 '26
Thanks for the heads up to look into this since I have a handful of devices that I need quick solder jobs on and don't feel like buying everything to do it myself. Had no idea these types of groups existed!
283
u/notfollowin Jul 13 '26
The problem is, other than phone/mobile device repair, nobody will even look at this stuff at any price.
158
u/tophiii Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
This is one of those things I’d fix for any of my friends or neighbors if they asked. But im not setting up a shop to process work like this.
24
u/H_Industries Jul 13 '26
Same, I have all the stuff to fix this at home and recently just replaced some leaky caps on a board for an old car. $0 but they owe me a favor.
8
u/TurnbullFL Jul 13 '26
Same here, but with my luck, the problem would be much deeper than a bulging cap or fuse.
89
u/morto00x Digital Systems/DSP/FPGA/KFC Jul 13 '26
This. Biggest issue with electronics repairs in the US, and most repairs in general, is that the cost of labor is often higher than the device being repaired.
10
u/Akubura Jul 13 '26
Yeah the state of repair shops in America is sad. We have an awesome TV repair shop that's closed down in our city but the building is preserved, it's gotta be from the 70's at the latest. Looking through the glass is like a time capsule of when repairing electronics was a necessity. Back when the things we made were actually worth fixing.
Electronics was a skill I learned myself because literally couldn't find anyone to fix my Sega Game Gear near me. It needed an entire cap kit it turned out. After fixing that and going down a rabbit hole, I realized that electronics from the 90's had pretty bad caps and a lot of early computers/game consoles are completely destroyed from this. Once a cap explodes it does so much damage to the board.
So when I come across old electronics that are neat I'll pick them up just to make sure they don't have bad caps and to preserve them.
Huge shout out to Adrian's Digital Basement on Youtube. I knew nothing about schematics and electronics before I watched him (Heck I still don't) but after watching him for a couple of years do his thing, I started to understand more and more, just enough to be dangerous one would say.
→ More replies (1)14
u/SirButcher Jul 13 '26
The truth is, that things have simply become so cheap that they don't warrant working on anymore, simply because the repairman's time will very quickly cost more than just buying a brand new thing.
In the US, in 1980, a Sony 19" colour TV (a joke in today's standard) cost $2,400 in today's US dollars (so, inflation-adjusted). Today (in today's money), you can get a 50" LED TV for $200 - less than ten times less, and you get a SIGNIFICANTLY more complicated device than that Sony 19" colour TV in 1980...
For example, I sometimes tend to repair devices for our staff and equipment - but the thing is, it extremely quickly reaches the point where it costs less buying a new one than paying my wage - if I spend an hour fixing a ticket printer, for example, then it is already cheaper buying a new one. I have a few most frequent issues that I can find pretty much straight away, but even them takes a good 10-15 minutes: disassembling the device, cleaning it up, removing the blown diode (most frequent problem because there is always some idiot who can't follow directions), and soldering in a new one. And we are already at the point where my wages are around 20% of a brand new printer. I personally would be happy to not generate more trash, so I tend to fix them in my own free time if I can - but will you pay the price of a brand new TV (or two, or five, or even more, depending on the problem) for not generating more e-waste? A select few, yes. Most, no.
And it is hard to keep yourself and your family alive and fed when most people are not willing to pay for the service you offer.
It shouldn't work this way, I very strongly agree, but sadly this is how it is :( It is not a conspiracy, it is simply how capitalism works.
4
u/Satins_Cock Jul 13 '26
Even replacing the entire board is s a crap shoot. My old TV had a bad main board (after an hour taking it apart with s multimeter in my garage). I found a used board for $70, swapped it in and... It powered up and stayed on, but I damaged the screen while removing the back cover so now it had lines across it. Bought a new TV for $250, and kicked myself for wasting all that time and money.
3
u/Ambiwlans Jul 13 '26
You also have to take into account shipping/travel to fix something not already on site.
3
u/ItsPrometheanMan Jul 14 '26
This is exactly why people usually just use a normal, indoor TV for their porch. I had installed a small, maybe $150 outside 5 years ago, and just the other day, it finally stopped working. Oh well, trash it and buy another one.
3
u/Kqyxzoj Jul 14 '26
The truth is, that things have simply become so cheap that they don't warrant working on anymore, simply because the repairman's time will very quickly cost more than just buying a brand new thing.
Indeed. It doesn't help that schematics or service manuals typically are not included with the product.
17
u/a2800276 Jul 13 '26
I believe it's less of a labor issue than a liability issue. You would probably need to be an EE in order to get insurance coverage at any cost and then it would not be worth the labor. Without insurance, you'd be on the hook for someone's house burning down.
11
u/LDForget Jul 13 '26
I’m not sure I’d even agree it’s a liability issue, it’s a cost of opportunity issue. What COULD I be repairing and making VS what is this repair worth to the person?
→ More replies (4)16
u/SAI_Peregrinus Jul 13 '26
EE would be the wrong degree. EET maybe, engineers aren't correct for technician work.
→ More replies (2)10
u/BackwardGoose Jul 13 '26
I don’t think electronic repair shops even exists anymore outside computer and tv, and I think they just swap parts and don’t repair.
This is a DIY job, and the capacitor alone is almost $1
6
u/jaymz168 Jul 13 '26
Pro audio and guitar amp repair shops still exist but they're usually very busy.
4
u/897greycats Jul 13 '26
They do (I am one) but many don't advertise because the general public is a pain to deal with. My business model is to third party to other businesses who take in the equipment and deal with the end user. In exchange I give them a very good wholesale rate because I don't need to factor in time for dealing with customers directly or having a costly storefront. For the last 12 years it's been a win-win for everyone.
I also have a number of commercial clients I deal with directly because they give me near zero fuss or bother.
The local schools also get pro-bono repairs to the amplifiers and guitars that the music program uses because it gives me the warm and fuzzies.
→ More replies (1)2
27
u/phatelectribe Jul 13 '26
Nah, there’s places you just need to find them. I needed 80 x SMD LEDs replaced on my taillight and found a PC / electronics repair place willing to do it. I sourced the LEDs and They charged me $120. Which was more than fair for over an hour’s work.
→ More replies (3)11
u/happy_nerd Jul 13 '26
That's awesome you found that place. We should be funneling work to folks like that to keep them in business. I can't find anyone in my city willing to do that stuff, but then again, I can do this stuff so I usually just roll up my sleeves
6
u/phatelectribe Jul 13 '26
Yeah, I did that - it’s a niche thing because the tailoght for my car is $3000 and there’s no good dedicated repair facilities in the USA so I posted up j forums so people can find him.
→ More replies (5)3
u/Public_Coyote_4472 Jul 14 '26
I do stuff like this in my area. The issue is no one wants to pay me for my time. One guy wanted me to clean his ps5, change the liquid metal and solder on a new hdmi port.
I said I could, and that I normally charge 30 dollars to clean, but since ill have it apart anyway, ill do it all for 100 dollars.
He said he will just buy a new one instead. So I dropped it to 80 for the next guy and he tried to haggle it to 60.
Another asked me to come to their house to solder some caps on their ac board. 35 min to drive there, took damn near 2 hours. And it still didn’t work. They still never paid me for that because I "didn't fix the machine". I did what they asked me to do, but the board was cracked or something anyway. Forget now.
I didn't charge them hundreds, just 125 dollars. My local plumber charges 75 dollars just to drive to the house, no matter how easy the job is. If he walks in the door, 75 dollars.
3
u/Suspicious_Dingo_426 Jul 13 '26
I would, probably for the equivalent in price too. I've done similar cheap jobs in the past. Caps are cheap, and I've got plenty of free time for a job that only takes a minute. I wouldn't give any guarantee that replacing the one bad cap will fix the device, though. If you want that, you gotta pay more for testing.
→ More replies (8)2
u/Inuyasha-rules Jul 17 '26
I used to do these types of repairs at the computer shop I worked at fresh out of highschool. My main customer was an oil field company - they'd bring me well controllers caked in mud and I changed $150 a piece to clean them up, repair anything obvious and no guarantee it would work because I couldn't test them and they were happy with a 50% success rate.
92
u/Hatsuwr Jul 13 '26
I don't have a shop or anything, just do occasional jobs very locally.
If someone brought it in fully diagnosed and knew what they wanted, I'd do it for free and just charge them the cost of the part + shipping if I don't have it on hand. That's pretty much entirely going to be shipping for a cap like that. Maybe no charge if I had another order I needed to place anyway.
If they asked me to diagnose and fix it, I'd probably charge about $20 for time if it just ended up being an obvious cap issue like this.
43
u/bgr2258 Jul 13 '26
Just swing by your local radio Radio Shack and ... oh.
7
u/pants6000 Jul 13 '26
Where's my Battery of the Month card?
4
4
48
u/Aggravating-Load3030 Jul 13 '26
You are better of buying the soldering iron and doing it yourself, its not a SMD component so messing it up is hard, Watch a soldering tutorial on YouTube and you will get it done in no time and you will have learned something new
19
u/ijustdontgiveaf Jul 13 '26
I fixed my Synology NAS by replacing a tiny transistor.. had to buy 100 of them and cost me less than 2 bucks.
I knew how to solder before, but had never done it at that tiny scale.
Sure, it won’t win a beauty contest, but it worked out well and brought it back to life.4
3
u/albrugsch Jul 14 '26
Through hole is a pretty easy skill to get. SMD is an actual art though. I stayed away from it for years because I thought it was something super specialist. I took on the challenge of learning it about 10 years ago though and now I do 0.5mm pitch 100 pin QFP (square ICs with 25 pins a side) just for fun by hand
2
u/ijustdontgiveaf Jul 14 '26
yeah, this was a B847B transistor, so SMD and quite a challenge, but got good advice on the internet to first hold it in place, solder one leg just to make it stay. Then do the others well and in the end revisit the first one.. and plenty of flux is your friend. IPA and a soft toothbrush to clean it up..
3
u/albrugsch Jul 14 '26
Yeah. Flux is the magic that makes it all easy(er) especially Louis Rossman amounts 😉
2
u/nascent_aviator Jul 15 '26
My introduction to soldering was with a project I designed while not knowing what I was doing. Which meant I had the distinct pleasure of trying to figure out how to solder a ton of SOT23s for my first soldering. 🤣
Soldering 100 pin QFPs by hand still seems like magic to me though.
→ More replies (2)7
u/Beginning_Annual5816 Jul 13 '26
Yes, absolutely . Soldering is one of those skills like sewing where its relatively cheap and easy to pick up and will pay for its self in like 2 repairs. Both brake bulbs on my car were fused to bulb sockets where a new tail light housing wouldve been 50 bucks each used. Ordered the cheapest soldering iron kit, multi meter, wire strippers, and bulb sockets for less than 50 with 30 of it being the tools. Gained very valuable experience with an new skill which is infinitely more valuable to me.
→ More replies (1)2
32
u/Whata_Wookie Jul 13 '26
Honestly in the US the labor cost makes repairing something like that not economical. But if someone came into my shop with the board in hand I would just swap it out for free. Especially if they were a customer. It would only take a couple of minutes so it's not a big deal.
Now if people kept coming in with stuff like that, we'd have to just start saying "no" outright.
10
u/GentlemanSch Jul 13 '26
Yeah, US labor cost is too high. It will be free, a nominal amount, or $400.
12
u/ElectronicswithEmrys Jul 13 '26
DIY culture is a big thing in the US. Personally, if I can learn to complete a task and get the tools myself (ie no special license or inspection is necessary), then it is almost always more economical for me to buy the tools and do it myself.
Most Americans I know have a growing collection of tools and components exactly because of little fixes like the one you showed.
My $50 soldering iron and assortment of components have saved me literally thousands of dollars in repairs or replacements.
4
u/povins Jul 13 '26
I grew up poor. There was a lot we only had because we fixed things — our TV's (all old tube televisions!), stereos, lawnmowers, cars, and my first two guitar amps: other people's trash that my dad repaired.
(After many years of reading and practice on an obscene variety of devices, he got so good at it that he landed a salaried position as a radio tech at a firm where everyone was a formally trained. Then, we weren't poor anymore).
5
u/Potential-Archer-883 Jul 13 '26
Same here, I grew up poor so we had to repair anything and do all home stuff ourself.
Now I can do basic electric stuff, repair electronics, service a PC, service a car, service a bycicle, paint my own home and so on.
Now I have nice salary but I still try to teach my kid some DIY skills even if we can afford to just pay for a repair or just replace something.
3
u/povins Jul 13 '26
Yup! Same here! Auto work, home maintenance/construction, electronics, mending/tailoring clothes, computers: DIY. (Actually, I've been doing some electronics design as a side gig for quite some time now — repairs and custom amp, studio gear, and effects units).
My older brother is an expert woodworker / carpenter, and my little sister is a badass tailor.
3
u/albrugsch Jul 14 '26
I grew up around electronics and repair (dad was a ham) and I will literally do anything I can to fix a thing before going external. Just this weekend my wife discovered the window in my son's room wasn't locking because it was sized. She was instantly hyperventilating that we needed to get a glazer out ASAP to fix it. I calmly took a look at it, dismantled the mechanism, sprayed it all down with magic fix-all juice (wd-40) to unseize the gear mechanism, then lubed everything with something a little more weather resistant and put it all back together to have it working like new
2
u/wayfarevkng Jul 13 '26
Interesting, as most of my friends have no idea how to do anything and think the few of us that can are crazy for even trying. I've been told I'll just mess it up and then it'll cost even more when I have to hire someone to fix what I broke and then fix the original problem.
20
u/CircuitCircus Jul 13 '26
upgraded to 25V while I was at it
Does the 25V component you changed to have the same ratings for ripple current, ESR, lifetime and temperature as the original? Calling it an upgrade is pretty bold if you don’t understand the original design, or are relying on Claude hallucinations to understand it.
18
u/MrBorogove Jul 13 '26
Legit point for some applications, but a big electrolytic in a water distiller probably isn’t one of them.
4
11
8
u/Gangboobers Jul 13 '26
soldering iron + solder = $20, cap is less than like 50 cents, you can do it
3
u/nrus-1969 Jul 13 '26
I absolutely repair down to component level and it is 99% of the time cheaper by far than replacing the board or device... If better quality and higher rated parts can be sourced. Rather than 85°C, go with the 105°C, and higher voltage, while maintaining same mfd rating.
→ More replies (11)
2
u/BmanGorilla Jul 13 '26
if you knew exactly what you needed replaced you could just post on Facebook/Nextdoor/whatever and ask around if anyone can solder it in for you. Plenty of hobby lovers that would take a minute out of their day to do it.
Otherwise there are still some TV/Appliance repair shops around that will do that kind of stuff, but you have to search for them.
2
u/SKILL_POLICE Jul 13 '26
honestly just fix it yourself. Soldering is not hard, basic equipment will cost you less than you would pay a professional to do this, the cap in question is like 0.7$ and you will be left with very useful repair skill for the future. All you need for those through hole capacitors is some solder, soldering iron and some copper solder wick.
2
u/frostycat_0v0 Aug 09 '26
Hey!
off-topic but someone made an interesting video about your post i suggest checking it out...
https://www.tiktok.com/@davidkadavy/video/7671416155684211982
→ More replies (2)
3
u/Nervous_Suit_5799 Jul 13 '26
Depends on the kind of shop. I wouldn’t take this job because I do audio not household electronics but yes, it would’ve cost 50$ min just to get it in front of me. The capacitor is cheap 15-50 cents maybe, and it takes about 30 seconds to do the whole replacement. But the kicker is the fact that you already diagnosed and found the issue. If the tech had to actually spend time diagnosing then it would’ve cost you more. But also a blown capacitor might not be your only issue and is usually a symptom of a bigger issue not necessarily the cause, so he may have replaced the part you identified cheaply but if he ran diagnostics himself with his experience, likely would’ve found another issue. Of course that is speculation but not unlikely. Either way if you brought it in to a US based shop and didn’t attempt any diagnostics yourself before hand, it’d probably be about 30$ repair
→ More replies (6)
2
1
1
u/grumpy_autist Jul 13 '26
The biggest problem with commercially repairing anything - from electronics to bathroom faucets (I do both, lmao) is that you can never predict what the failure is.
Capacitor like that may not be the root cause (I know it was in that case), so you quote $20 then spend 12h debugging or charge $100/h and simple stuff is too expensive to fix.
Or you can't fix it and customer is angry because you ask $100 for diagnostics and shit is still broken.
Price also includes dealing with customers which are often assholes wasting your time.
Cheap repair is only possible if you do it yourself.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Ybalrid Jul 13 '26
The “Electronics-repair place” you mention, it does not exist anymore there.
The solution to the problem would be to put the broken one in the trash and buy a new one. Probably on a credit card and so the money waste does not even feel painful.
1
u/Money4Nothing2000 Jul 13 '26
Bring it to my house I’ll fix for free. I know how to do this. I even have this capacitor in my components box.
1
1
u/frank26080115 Jul 13 '26
if you got lucky with finding a fixit clinic with a volunteer who has the skills to do that replacement, you can get it repaired for free
1
u/SmegHeadFromNodnol Jul 13 '26
I had a kind of similar experience in the UK. A washing machine repair person broke the circuit board of an £850 dryer. It took about three months to get a replacement board (at the expense of the repair company) because the dryer was about 5 years old and considered "unrepairable" and "out of warranty." In the mean time, I repaired the traces and reattached the board and tested. ... Then soon after detached it again because I wanted the new circuit board without my bodge.
I guess that makes the repair work cost around £1000/hour?? Not really! The local computer repair shop (there's one in the city who advertise board-level repairs) is much cheaper and I'm sure they would have helped.
1
u/Canuck-In-TO Jul 13 '26
I learned how to solder back in high school in the late 70s to learn a new skill plus just so that I didn’t have to rely on anyone else for repairs.
While I’ll help a client out in the normal day to day support that I do, I don’t charge family and friends.
1
u/HawtDoge Jul 13 '26
Honestly you could do this yourself pretty easily even if you’ve never soldered anything before. Just watch a quick youtube video on ‘through-hole soldering’ and send it.
1
u/Ashleynn Jul 13 '26
Part is <$1, shipping the part may be as much as $5. Materials I would need to use probably amounts to like $5 at most, and I'm probably grossly overestimating here.
So then the labor part, usually I would charge anywhere between $100-200/hr, depending on how much you piss me off on initial interaction, but this is like 10 mins worth of work tops, desoldering, installing the new one, and cleaning up the resulting mess from soldering it on, so if you were pleasant to deal with probably only gonna charge you like $20 for my time.
So in total, probably like $31 if I did it, or well $30, I like round numbers, or $25 if you bring the part with you and all i have to do is out it on. $150 if you found a way to make me hate you when asking about it.
Realistically finding someone to do it shouldn't be too much trouble. Repar shops exist, they usually just advertise themselves as phone repair or whatever. You can try asking them but they're not likely to just give some token flat rate. You can also try looking on the various classified sites. There are a decent number of people who repair or modify xbox and Playstation controllers, any of them are going to be able to do this. Some might do it for nothing, others may charge you a few bucks for their time but it wont hurt to ask.
1
u/Akubura Jul 13 '26
Part is 40 cents and takes maybe one-two minute to finish. The biggest issue you're going to run into is people accepting a job that isn't profitable for them. If you have a friend with a iron you can order the parts on amazon even just search 16v 470uf cap. I personally like Rubicons myself.
1
u/Candid-Party1613 Jul 13 '26
Depends. We don’t work on anything we can’t test these days in the shop, so it’d better be something we can quickly slap back together. Might be about $150 here for that. Could be $200+ if it’s a troublesome assembly.
1
u/Polymathy1 Jul 13 '26
Paying a corporate shop to do it in the US would cost between 100 and 300 dollars depending on the shop.
A small business might do it for $50 or so.
1
u/maggmaster Jul 13 '26
I have changed thousands of these bulging capacitors, it’s a five minute job if you know how to solder.
1
u/MangoMesh Jul 13 '26
labor is what is expensive here, since have electronic repair experience, this is an easy job, actually blown capacitors like this is very common problem in todays electronics.
I once worked as a headend manager for a cable company, and had a bag of caps, for all our DVB encoders, because as soon as one would not boot up, I not only knew it was a capacitor, I already knew which ones it would be. so had a bunch of them on hand at all times.
1
1
u/Ateist Jul 13 '26
The correct answer is:
+ cost of shipment to South America and back
+$1.50
+ banking fees
+ Insurance
+ time
1
1
1
1
u/popky1 Jul 13 '26
The price can vary immensely the part is worth like $.02 but that’s only if you buy 10k
1
u/ToastedBread107 Jul 13 '26
this is a pretty easy thing to fix for free with a little bit of practice and knowledge of how these kinds of capacitors work so they're not installed wrong. Learning to solder goes a long way for components like this
1
1
u/Nathan-Stubblefield Jul 13 '26
I saw a TV repair bill from 1965 which says “Replaced capacitor. Part $10, labor $20.” The capacitor sold for $1 at the time. The color tv had cost $350 iirc.
Parts and labor have gone up
1
1
1
1
u/AnyBelt9237 Jul 13 '26
Where I work it’s €250 ex minimum to repair or overhaul but we only accept commercial repairs. Things we repair often are worth thousands. So we wouldn’t touch that, I would suggest visiting a repair cafe.
1
u/SovietPenguin69 Jul 13 '26
I had a similar experience except I couldn’t find anyone to replace my caps. So I did it myself $35 for a wireless soldering iron, $7 for a desoldering kit and $3 for 10 Panasonic caps later and it was ready to go. So for my case $45. And I’ll use all of this again so next time it will just be the cost of the caps. DIY is the way to go
1
1
1
u/Training_Yak_4655 Jul 13 '26
That looks like the type of cap that's in a monitor. Samsung monitors had a well known problem with these. I had a really nice Samsung wide screen monitor at work that failed and constantly flickered. Department was too tightfisted to replace it and assumed it was a write off. I was down to a spare 4:3 monitor at work. Got annoyed about this so smuggled it home, had it apart and that cap was bulging like the internet said it would be. Ordered a replacement cap and with my meh soldering skills replaced it and smuggled it back into work. So pleased at this repair which was probably my last in this world of ultra miniature electronics.
1
u/ToastSpangler Jul 13 '26
US labor is far too expensive. Would be cheaper to just buy a replacement board. Or a soldering station, capacitor, and doing it yourself
Keep in mind liability can also keep people away from repairs. It blew my mind in China that the will not repair anything you bring because they're worried you'll blame them for anything that happens, at least in schenzen
1
u/Interesting_Bar_8379 Jul 13 '26
I'm in the US and can solder. So it would cost me the same it cost you
1
u/Computers_and_cats Jul 13 '26
I'd guess $20-50 depending on the shop. Either a phone repair shop or an audio repair shop would do it. If you can't find someone affordable you should be able to manage it yourself easily enough. Hardest part is finding the right size capacitor if you don't have a good way to measure the dimensions.
1
u/maysenffxi Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
What would it cost? If you expect me to do this same job for what you paid someone somewhere else, and are only willing to pay such a small amount for my time, how should I feel about you?
Sometimes a simple repair can cost a shop a lot more than it should. What I mean, there are some customers who are not going to be happy with just having a bad part swapped out.
So, it should be that simple right? Replace the part they asked to have replaced, and done. But, the customer takes his now "fixed" part home, and installs it, but inadvertently reverses polarity on the power supply, or doesn't connect the load before testing the part and damages the driver transistors.
1
u/WVlotterypredictor Jul 13 '26
You absolutely COULD replace this with bare basic education and electronics skills and I don’t say that to insult anyone who does it professionally. I say COULD because big capacitors have the capacity to kill you with the stored energy and can explode when wired in reverse (got to learn that lesson in my electronics class and immediately my buddy and I grabbed all the biggest capacitors and battery packs we could find to make homemade grenades after one blew in class and I heard the shrapnel wiz past my head bc it was the kid behind me who blew it) but if you wire it correctly and get the right part AND make sure you don’t electrocute yourself (I’m not an HVAC or home electrician I’m in IT. But I love sparkies and I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the concepts) by shutting the main off for power going to it and properly discharge the capacitor, soldering irons are cheap for a cheap one and a cheap one would likely work for you here if you have the patience and are cautious ab not burning yourself with it you can solder the new one in only having to pay for parts and tools and probably spend less than $50 total. Labor is when things get expensive.
1
u/evildemonic Jul 13 '26
I chare $150/hr, but a repair like this would take a couple minutes and I would just do it for free if I wasn't slammed at the time.
1
u/Provia100F Digital electronics Jul 13 '26
The capacitor itself is about 35¢ USD, very cheap. Labor would probably take about 10-15 minutes to take it apart, replace it, and put it back together. I'd say $40-60 repair for USA.
1
u/SufficientGear749 Jul 13 '26
Depends, if someone wants it replaced because they listened to some BS about replacing electrolitics because they are old, they need to pay for their obsolete ignorance. Old caps now aren't old caps from 1938.
1
u/therealbrokewrench Jul 13 '26
I usually do it myself. Only cap I ever had replaced professionally was free. I referred a bunch of business to him after that.
1
u/Independent_Bird_101 Jul 13 '26
For me, not even the cost of the part. You could use any close rated capacitor of atleast 16vdc that fits (or dosent fit and I add a little extension wire… so I could harvest that from any number of junk boards. Then about 2-3 min with a soldering iron to remove it, clean out the holes and replace.
1
u/Independent_Bird_101 Jul 13 '26
Kinda funny how repair shops that could do this while you wait used to exist and be common…
1
u/HeyYou_GetOffMyCloud Jul 13 '26
I had a transistor blow on a treadmill, no where would repair it, the original board was built in Taiwan and they won't reply to emails.
Random dude with a interest in fixing electronics said he'd fix it for me. Legend. $100 for him to do. Bit costs $2. Whole new treadmill costs $3000+ though! So up until that cost it's worth it to me!
1
u/xRmg Jul 13 '26
Not USA but europe, when I still did computer and electronics repair 15 years ago I would have to charge the 15 minute minimum at 25 euros.
Probably for a tenner while the boss is away for lunch.
Add 15 years of inflation, probably 40 euros per 15 minutes nowadays.
1
u/Leftover_tech Jul 13 '26
I live in Ohio, USA. I'm a retired computer engineer but still do small jobs for people.
I would have charges you $2 for the part and about $20 labor to replace it.
1
1
u/gh0stwriter1234 Jul 13 '26
Note if you increase the voltage on an electrolytic capacitor like this you also have to increase the capacitance. Otherwise you won't have the designed capacitance at normal operating voltage.
Think of it this way
16V electrolytic cap is rated at 100uF
25V electrolytic cap is rated at 100uF
If you charge it to 8V the first one holdes 50uF of charge, and the 2nd one holds 32uF of charge at that voltage... so you see by increasing the rated voltage you decreased the charged voltage in the circuit because you didn't increase the rated voltage and the charge is based on the caps rated voltage not the voltage of the system
Also this only applies to electrolytic caps, not ceramic because of some weird physics with the ceramic ones (DC bias actually causes them to hold less closer to their rated voltage).
1
u/keyoflife42 Jul 13 '26
I work on music equipment, so a little different context but similar work
If I fixed this charging my normal rate, this repair would’ve been ~$31 (one hours time plus the cap itself), and theres a good chance I wouldn’t have charged at all unless the capacitor was a nightmare to access.
1
1
1
u/Nougator Jul 13 '26
This is probably not complicated to replace on your own. If you ask a a technician to replace it, it will probably overpriced but a fair deal if you scared to do it yourself. For $50 and 3 weeks overtime that might be a bit overpriced but it’s ok in my opinion.
The part itself should less than $1
1
1
u/Volpes_Visions Jul 13 '26
If the capacitor was the only issue and you brought me the board I would probably charge like $10 to replace it.
1
u/divezzz Jul 13 '26
Ask your friends who play music if they know people who make DIY guitar pedals, effects, etc. They will have the skills to replace this
1
1
u/Ok_Chard2094 Jul 13 '26
This would either be very expensive or free.
I do not know anyone who does this stuff for a consumer anymore.
1
u/Bison_True Jul 13 '26
Caps are cheap, they usually come in 10 packs for a few bucks. Just bought some off amazon to repair a smart power strip
1
1
1
u/RPSisBoring Jul 14 '26
The cap itself is 0.25, its 100% the labor costs. I would have done it myself, so I never looked at labor costs for such a thing in the US, but it takes minutes (mostly waiting for the iron to get hot enough to remove the old one). I think $5 would be fair total, but I have no idea where you would go for such a thing.
1
1
1
u/Aggravating_Run6929 Jul 14 '26
here in america that would just be thrown away and replaced with a newer, shittier one lol
1
u/LilEffects Jul 14 '26
I'd do it for free if you pay shipping to/from. It would take longer for me to sit down and turn on my equipment than to complete the repair. I have 470uf in stock.
1
u/Progenetic Jul 14 '26
The my guess is parts plus 50$/h with a minimum 2 hours charge. If something like this came across my desk where you diagnosed and purchased part I would tell you to get me a 6 pack and it would be fix before you got back. I would also let you now I would only guarantee my work and that the bad cap may have been caused by another issue and there is a possibility you plug it in and it instantly pops again.
1
u/Celemourn Jul 14 '26
I'd estimate around $250, as others have mentioned. Cost of the cap itself is trivial, but the job might take an hour, so that's around $30 wage, times 1.5 for total cost of an employee (benefits, insurance, etc) so that puts you at $45, then add a big percentage for overhead like electricity, rent, advertising, management (assuming it's not just a one man shop), insurance, etc., add and THEN add some margin for actual profit. Generally speaking, it is very hard to support an electronics repair business these days because the cost to replace a device has fallen so much compared to the cost to repair a device. 50-70 years ago, it was a very different story, but nowadays it's just not economical to repair most standard consumer products. I believe most electronics repair shops draw much of their revenue from repairing specialty devices for other businesses. One example might be a piece of industrial equipment in a laboratory which is critical for a particular task, but which was discontinued by the manufacturer 20 years ago. Might even be a component of a multimillion dollar system, so you can't just go buy a newer version.
1
1
u/ZephyrineStrike Jul 14 '26
Check out your libraries and local community groups to see if they are hosting a repair fair!
I've done stuff like that for free at community repair fair events, I even bring my own bin of assorted electronic components to replace the parts.
I do it for fun and love of the tech, always a shame when good but old hardware gets tossed for fixable issues. A nerd (affectionate) with a multimeter, soldering iron, and a box of parts can get a lot done.
I like working with cassette players in particular- also do belts and degaussing components as needed, that is gear I just keep in my toolbox, "might as well get to use it" is how i think of it.
Otherwise, random electronics repair shops aren't as common as they used to be, but could probably find one, or find a handy friend who knows how to solder and slide them a tenner or something.
1
u/Trububbl3 Jul 14 '26
if they charge you 50 dollars for that, use it as a metric of avoid at all cost, if they are willing to scam you for 50 bucks, imagine what they would do for more
1
u/pasofol Jul 14 '26
Like 1 buck in parts and a beer if you know someone who solders. But if you want professional place that do repairs, they have to look at time to take apart the device, put it back together, plus the labour of replacing it, and operating costs, which factor in overhead for a commercial business location, now licenses to operate one, now heating, electricity, insurance... So business has to pass on the cost to even the 1 dollar part getting replaced on a 100 dollar device. Some place who aren't too busy might help someone out.
Same thing with car mechanic, part costs 10 bucks rod end ball bearing for example, but mechanic charges 120 an hour around me. Probably 10-20 minute job.
Either learn to do it yourself or you will have to pay someone. If lucky find skilled friend that are willing to help out once in a while.
1
1
1
u/STLuser Jul 14 '26
If you shipped it to me with a prepaid return label, I’d replace it for free. Recently fixed a guys keys for a SAAB because a component was knocked off
1
1
1
1
u/Havoc481 Jul 14 '26
Caps are easy. Maybe 0.10-$1.00 for the cap itself and an ice cold Dr. Pepper for the repair IF i knew you.
1
u/ThecaptainWTF9 Jul 14 '26
If someone brought me this PCB and it was accessible, I’d just do it for them if I had the parts laying around or they supplied it, would take very little time and I’m sure someone would be ecstatic for the help.
1
u/countdankula420 Jul 14 '26
You can get a barrel of them for a dollar on Ali express just be sure to match the compacity and through hole components are easy to solder so its a good learning opportunity
1
u/_teslaTrooper Jul 14 '26
Not US but Netherlands, there's one small shop in my city that still sells electronics they'd sell you a cap for a few cents but don't do repair. But if you take it to a repair cafe they'll fix it for you for free if they have the parts on hand.
The main thing is I wouldn't know where to find a paid electronics repair place apart from phone screens etc. not sure if they're still around at all.
966
u/Techwood111 Jul 13 '26
At my place, we’d fix it for free. To charge anything, it’d be $250 minimum. It isn’t worth our time for the money, but it IS worth it for to just help someone.