The truth about caps

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by Spades

but, the question would be, on a lower wattage system with a average cap where you were playing music with a consistent hit, that would require bursts of energy for the subs, would a cap be a bad idea? regardless of how it affects the alternator...because, the alternator WILL be taxed by lots of stereo goodies regardless of the alternator. i mean, you are still draining the battery.

i was under the impression all a cap was for was to reduce strain on your battery that causes headlights to dim as it sucks a large amount of amps with a quick bass note. a cap isnt meant to relive strain on the alternator, i thought it was meant to aliviate the battery.

technically, no matter how powerfull the alternator and the battery(batteries?) the alt is still going to have to charge the batteries at some point, you are still using the energy when you are pushing your amps to clipping...no matter how many caps you have, that alt will still be taxed.

i guess maybe i mis understood what manufacturers were claiming their caps could do. I always assumed that everyone understood a cap is for a faster harder hit of bass and would keep your battery alive longer and eliminate headlamp dimming. i guess i never heard of a company claiming their cap relived alternator strain.

A cap will help in a car that already has an alternator that can keep up, and still has a bit of headroom, along with a decent battery. HOWEVER, if there are any symptoms of an electrical system that can not keep up, then it will do more harm than anything else.

Symptoms could include, weird rpm fluctuations, dash or headlight dimming, slower than normal starts when you turn on your car.



There was another write up that was pretty good that I no longer find anymore, it showed the math behind the discharge of a cap... Basically It came down to a 1farad cap would only be able to power a 1000w amp for something like 1/10th of a second, and then its power is used up, and then becomes a drain on the system... That is where Richard Clark's article picks up. If a cap is being fully discharged, you've got bigger problems than a cap can fix.



To answer the question about headlight dimming... yeah, a cap will make it appear that your head lights don't dim as much. The reason for that is because your lights won't be getting as bright. They will stay dimmer, longer, and thus you won't see as big of a fluctuation, because there will be a constant drain on your electrical system.