15F Powercore DOA

Post by **stipud** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:30 pm

New Powercore... $234
New AL Cover... $120

Opening up the Powercore to switch covers... priceless

There's some things money can buy... For everything else... there's FSDFAJSDHFAJKSFGHASDJFGHKS

Pedi · Post by **Pedi** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:35 pm

What the hell???????

Post by **mr tibbs** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:37 pm

Is that the one I got for you??!! What the hell??

Post by **stipud** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:38 pm

Pedi wrote:What the hell???????

Powercore explosion

And who says the 20F ones are less reliable? This is my second broken "new" 15F powercore. Sigh.

Pedi · Post by **Pedi** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:40 pm

stipud wrote:
And who says the 20F ones are less reliable? This is my second broken "new" 15F powercore. Sigh.

Auch, now that I got 4 of those 15F powercores???????????

Maybe I should open some of those...

steelbath · Post by **steelbath** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:41 pm

that looks nasty!

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:42 pm

Damn

Post by **stipud** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:43 pm

mr tibbs wrote:Is that the one I got for you??!! What the hell??

Yep. Of course I don't blame you for any of this, nor do I want any kind of refund. It's just my luck with these Powercores it seems.

I didn't focus too well on the part that blew up, but it corroded and exploded right out of its plastic case.

Pedi · Post by **Pedi** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:44 pm

Did this happen when you tested it?? How??

Post by **mr tibbs** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:45 pm

Fuck me, sorry about that. It looked good from the outside.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:56 pm

Bummer Tom......that new AL. cover needs it's innards.

Post by **stipud** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:56 pm

Pedi wrote:Did this happen when you tested it?? How??

Nope, I never hooked it up... just opened it to change covers. It was a store demo piece, but they claimed it was never hooked up to power. So this cap should be new.

It looks like something started leaking by the ground terminal, which caused it to corrode heavily against the copper. The corrosion expanded in and out of the cap's shell, until it finally burst out the side.

It might still work if I powered it, but I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

Post by **Bfowler** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:57 pm

holy shit. can that be bypassed with a cable?

Post by **stipud** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:08 pm

Bfowler wrote:holy shit. can that be bypassed with a cable?

The buss bar isn't the bad part... the capacitor casing behind it has blown up.

Here's some better pictures...

Post by **joerg** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:10 pm

This one is ready to dump it!

dedlyjedly · Post by **dedlyjedly** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:25 pm

That's shitty Tom. Quite some damage for the store never hooking it up.

At least the irreplacable part of that equation is still in tip-top condition.

Post by **stipud** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:26 pm

dedlyjedly wrote:That's shitty Tom. Quite some damage for the store never hooking it up. At least the irreplacable part of that equation is still in tip-top condition.

The terminals look completely untouched, so their story is plausible.

I just found out PG doesn't service Powercores anymore...

http://www.rodinaudio.com/pgMobile/pdf/ ... -25-08.pdf

Listed as N/A. Sooooo it doesn't look like I can replace the cap either, like I did last time. Wonderful.

dedlyjedly · Post by **dedlyjedly** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:30 pm

boo! I'm sure there'll be some used ones popping up sometime, but I can see how you'd be a bit gun shy given your track record with the carbon aer-gel type. It's a long shot, but I wonder if Alumapro has any parts available for it?

dedlyjedly · Post by **dedlyjedly** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:52 pm

the more I think about it though, it's likely a lack of availability on those outsourced components that caused PG to stop fixing them.

gridracer · Post by **gridracer** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:56 pm

Hmmm i guess maybe I should take my BNIB powercore 15 apart and check it out.

Post by **mhyde71** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:01 pm

whoa.. just getting in one this now, and i was the second (or third) of which one of those PC's went to.. and Bret was the third (last/frthwhatever) and I changed th lights in his and swapped mine and stuff... and dont recall seeing any thing quite like that... i mean there was some (what I would have called corrosion) on the bars, and a slight build up on the side wall of cap, but not sure i discovered anything quite like you are finding tom.

So sorry Tom... Gees makes me wanna swap my AL cover back off now even more so and revert it back to the Ti-Metal Look.

I might have pic's of me doing the lights for bret... lemme check.

vin78 · Post by **vin78** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:02 pm

damn man. I had that exact problem with my PC15. Its pretty much useless IIRC.

Post by **Eric D** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:12 pm

Those are just one big cap, so they probably leak over time like a cap on an amp can.

I highly suggest you don’t test it. If it explodes they would have trouble identifying the body, and probably finding you among the rubble of where you live. Not worth it if you ask me.

If you do test it, wear some thick gloves. Not to protect yourself from the acid, but to keep your fingers nice for fingerprints later!

Post by **mhyde71** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:27 pm

shit! I got mine in the trunk of the rig

Post by **joerg** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:33 pm

mhyde71 wrote:shit! I got mine in the trunk of the rig

Time for an Optima instead Matt!!!