I guess I'll add to the pile of options for film capacitors by bringing up the ones made in Italy by ICEL S.r.l. (
https://www.icel.it/polypropylene-film-capacitors.html). Their PWS series are large yellow axial snubber-grade polypropylene film capacitors, constructed with metal foil electrodes at each end and a metallized-film "series connection" in between as described in the data sheet (so there's apparently truly no "outside foil" end with these). As of when I purchased some back in 2024, the prices were comparable to equivalent modern CDE "orange drops" made in China. Their physical sizes aren't far off from the old wax paper capacitors. They seem like a good option to me for those preferring a bit more authenticity to original capacitors in terms of physical size and appearance as well as not being made in China.
I've also been buying and using their PHC series metallized-film capacitors with 1.0–2.2 µF values to recap antique telephones with excessively leaky original capacitors; in this case it's not about matching the appearance of the original metal-encased ones (which I leave installed but taken out of circuit) but I'm pleased with their quality and they work just fine.
Nichicon is their distributor to the North American market, so they are categorized under "Nichicon" as manufacturer on DigiKey and Mouser; unfortunately neither source stocks them exhaustively so one may have to buy from both to get all the values one needs.
Taiwanese-made products are fine with me as well in preference to Chinese-made, so I'm pleased to find out the generic small film caps I've seen in bandersen's photos/videos and that Just Radios sells are apparently made in Taiwan.
01-12-2026, 06:29 PM
Linear Mode
