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Pro tip: double check those thrift store electronics before you plug them in
I found a vintage stereo receiver at a Goodwill in Portland for $12 last Tuesday. Got it home, plugged it in, and heard a loud pop followed by a burning smell. Turns out the power supply caps were cracked and leaking. I opened it up and saw corrosion all over the board. I did manage to fix it with $8 in parts from a local electronics shop, but it took me three evenings to figure out what went wrong. My advice is to always test thrift store electronics with a cheap power strip that has a breaker first. Has anyone else had a find that looked great but ended up being a headache?
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chen.adam7d ago
That $8 fix is a steal compared to what a shop would charge you... I had a similar issue with a Pioneer amp from a garage sale in Seattle, popped the breaker on my power strip before I even got it fully turned on. @the_mila is right about power strips usually having just fuses, but some of the better ones do have resettable breakers like the Tripp Lite ones I use now. Ended up replacing three bad transistors and a handful of caps on that Pioneer, took me about a week of evenings but it sounds amazing now.
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