5.0 Farad Digital Power Capacitor - High-Performance Car Audio Accessory with Blue Digital Display, Voltage Readout, Over Voltage Protection, Mounting Hardware, DC 12-24V - PLCAPE50

Needs initital charge, and appears to sleep, but goes live and monitors voltage above and beyond after that. I ran the capacitor charge / discharge process four times before learning to let it charge to 12.0 volts, and wait for the led display to go out, then remove resistor. If it did not charge up enough before display goes out, de-energize to about 10-volts, and redo and hit 12 volts (I applied a load to bring led back on). Then, stop: Go outside, unplug the ground back at the battery, go back and actually connect the + wire directly to the capacitor. And finally add in the positive load also. Then quickly rewire the battery ground back outside to keep highest voltage while completing the wiring process. You lose a few tenths of volts the longer you take. Also, ground and fuse everything first before charging and connecting capacitor.

I purchased the PLCAPE50 for my car audio system. This item works very well and looks good too. The mounting hardware is included and easy to install. The blue LED display is an attractive addition. The device turns on and off automatically based upon voltage sensing circuity. This cap provides the extra boost and filtering needed for a nice car audio system. I am very pleased and would buy another should I need one. I highly recommend this quality product. Thank you PYLE and Amazon.

Noticed immediate difference on large startup loads with my portable 12v solar system! I currently have 300 watts of solar charging 2-122ah flooded lead acid batteries powering a 500/1200w power inverter. The chemistry of lead acid is slow at discharging, especially with large startup loads such as a refrigerator compressor. Connecting this capacitor in parallel between the battery bank and inverter supplies the needed boost when such high load demands are needed. Before installing it, the refrigerator compressor would struggle a few seconds before finally cranking over. With the capacitor, it immediately kicks on, all the while the batteries never drop in voltage. Currently I cannot speak on the longevity of this capacitor, but initially I'm pleased with its performance. I'll note that while the instructions say the capacitor will fully charge in seconds, in reality it took about 10-15 minutes.

It works but other than the annoying digital display staying on and lighting up the whole inside of your car at night and the cheaply made plastic mounts that strip out to easy, it gets the job done for now. Time will tell on how well it lasts. Not really sure I'm liking it because of it not shutting off and at night it's bright enough to be seen through 2.5% window tint with no problem. Draws unwanted attention to your vehicle and let's the wrong people know what you have in the back seat. I'm probably going to put electrical tape over the display to keep the light off so no one wants to break into my car at night because they can see exactly what is there when no one is around. Also make sure it is charged correctly before installing. Mine took about 10 to 15 minutes to complete the charging process. Update: Less than a week in use. The bass seems to hit maybe a little bit harder BUT my amp now cuts out once in a while which it NEVER done before. And the headlights still dim on hard hitting bass. I had to put electrical tape over the display because at night it is entirely to bright inside the car. Also the capacitor does not shut off. So far it hasn't drained my battery but I make sure I carry a jump pack with me just in case! I'm probably gonna replace it with something different real soon. Overall I'm not impressed with it. I honestly don't think it's worth the money for what you get. UPDATE... I've unhooked the thing! Drains car battery after not starting the car for a week in the cold. Disconnected it and no more problems with the car starting even at below zero Temps. The thing never shuts off and is constantly draining power from battery. Not very happy about the outcome. I personally wouldn't buy it again.

Supports an Alpine MRX-M110 amp that powers an Alpine Type R12 subwoofer. I installed the system with the capacitor so I cannot comment on improvement with the cap as opposed to without. What I can say is that through the digital readout it is obvious the cap is doing it's job because you can monitor in real-time the voltage level. Even with this capacitor I had to install a better battery (XS Power) and do the big three upgrade to prevent my lights from dimming. I also have a seperate four channel amp powering the speakers and without a cap for the subwoofer I would expect my lights to nearly shut off on a heavy note. The only problem I have with this cap is the audible warning. It is obnoxious and never ending - neither of which is a bad thing given the power contained within this capacitor. However, the documentation did not explain why the cap was making a noise and I had to determine that any interuption to the battery's supply would cause the voltage to drop and the cap to go into a safety warning mode. When I first received this cap I ended up breaking the positive/negative bolt whilhe tightening it. I did not provide excessive force but only what I considered reasonable given the hot/cold cycle the terminals will endure. The included proprietary bolt/terminal system is very weak but also quite easily replaced. I bored out the threaded portion that fed into the ternminals and replaced the weak threaded portion with a threaded steel bolt. I reverse threaded the bolt back into the terminal and then rethreaded the bolt into the capacitor. With this change the cap is solid and has not shown any signs of trouble since.

To help set the record straight about capacitors and "they don't work" and "they are the miracle worker".... I installed a GM-D8601 with two TSW3003D4 at 1ohm (pushed 400RMS to each sub) on a 2013 corolla. When the bass dropped hard, every light went dim...very dim. The stock alternator only pushed out 100amps and just the amp/subs required 56amps to run properly. I noticed that my battery was not getting the proper charge from the alternator so I upgraded it to a Hi-output 200amp alt and did the "Big 3". Still received dimming in all the lights but not as much since the battery was being properly charged now and the alternator was able to help support the demand of power from the amp/subs. Then I bought this item. The capacitor was able to cure the dimming of the lights. The cap was able to solve this problem because it stores the "extra" power the amp/subs need at that desired moment. Regardless of the amperage the alternator produces there will still be a power "suction" when the subs really "slam" which will cause your lights to dim. The cap is installed between the amp and alternator. Like a battery, a cap receives and holds a charge. However the charge does not last as long as a battery. It's design is to charge fast so that the amp has the power it demands at an intense moment (like when bass hits hard).

I don't think it worked. I added another battery to power the amp. This is basically just a source of nice blue light now.

Great product adds peace of mind that I won’t be replacing my alternator later. This pyle capacitor has blue lights that light up when the amp pulls power which I think is pretty cool. Added the ground wire and charged up with the included resistor. Like to mention it only charged to 8.7 volts on the meter before the resistor stopped working and the display went off. Once I connected the power and amp positive and started the truck it all came on showing what my alternator was putting out. Definitely can tell a difference in my bass output at higher volumes and I’m only running a 400.2 Rockford Fosgate into 2 15” kicker compc now that the power issue is solved time to put a bigger amp. I’ll follow up on a second review later but so far everything is perfect.