May I ask a question as I am certainly not versed worth a hoot in power supply design...
First. Do ANY of the converters use Panasonic low ESR caps? The critter is going to see 24/7/365 duty except when the lights go out. Secondly advice heeded -strongly- about circuit board trace fragility. I would not do the replacement. A computer/power supply tech in Sta Rosalia would do it. TelMex uses him for emergency work. I do not need this no-cost 55-amp unit blowing up in three years and I do not want to blow 150-dollars on something that's going to blow up in three years. Always-on operation. I seek durability not gimmickry. At home I have chargers up the ying-yang. When I get to guatemala it'll just be the RV unit and THE BORG. Sending 8 oz by DHL is 172 dollars, customs fees and a ten hour round trip.
So, do any of the newer converters use the low ESR capacitors or am I merely starting out fresh with marginal ones? For about 30 dollars I can re-cap the Whiff-Co and add a Bourns 10 turn pot. The idea behing my charger is to share load between two Megawatts. Either one can play redundant in case lf failure.
So I have relegated this capacitor issue over to the "I'll sleep on it" dept. I wish to employ wisdom in my decision and I cannot even begin to express my gratitude in "Devil's Advocate" opinions. Here. This is a difficult decision for me. I just do not have the exhaustive amount of experience with converters as I do batteries and battery charging. Four "Smart Chargers" (not converters) blowing up in three years has left me skittish.
Opinions Solicited but with all respect DURABILITY thousand upon thousands of hours worth is # 1
