ANYONE EVER HEARD OF THIS ABOUT RCA-DRD435

[bubbagscotch]

Someone wrote this on RCA DRD435 RH. I have one of these as a backup, I'm wondering whether to keep it. I read this on another forum:

"I just posted this review at Amazon of the RCA DRD435RH receiver, which I've used without major issue since 2002. If you have one or more of these, maybe you should keep an eye on it: >>I got this unit to use with DirecTV in 2002. It performed very well. Occasionally, it crashed, and had to be unplugged for a few seconds to be reset. This happened only every few months, so it wasn't a big deal. Sometimes the box responded slowly to the remote, but it fixed itself after a few hours. The menu operation was close to perfect. I liked this practically trouble-free thing, until February 3, 2010.
That morning, I was in the office and heard what sounded like an M80 firecracker in the living room. The dog ran into the hallway in a panic. I went to see what made the noise. Smoke was pouring out of the DRD435RH receiver. The room was filled with it and it smelled really weird. I unplugged the very hot box, unhooked the cables and tossed it outside. I suspected a voltage hit, but nothing else was damaged. VCR, DVD, digital converter box, DVR, TV sets, computers, everything was fine. The UPS didn't beep or show anything wrong. The receiver simply chose that moment to explosively die. I looked inside later, and it was black and melted in places. It may have started a fire if I didn't work at home. As it is, the failure was mildly inconvenient and DirecTV is sending a new box.
So, this was a wonderful product for eight years until it literally blew up.

Looked closer. Two exploded caps, big ones, split on top, the inside of the case just above them coated with sticky brown goo. Bleh. "


Just wondering if it's a hazard on these receivers if that's what happens to them.

 

[fleetfarmer]

It sounds like 2 electrolytic caps exploded. They do that sometimes when they get old, material inside dries up, cap shorts out. The large ones have slits cut in the top to vent out if they should one day explode.

 

[david_gilbert]

a cap exploding will make a big noise and and even larger stinking mess. i had a pair of caps blow in a repeater power supply once, put a large amount of oil all over the floor. these caps were the diameter of a 2 liter drink bottle and about half as tall. the smoke actually set off the fire alarm when it happened.

this type of issue is going to come up periodically with any decent electronics. the cheap stuff usually fail long before the caps fail, but decent stuff will last many years and thus the dried out caps explode.

 

[texasbrit]

It's actually the first time I had heard about this receiver having this problem, but it's possible with any piece of electronics equipment particularly as it gets older. These RCA receivers have been around for a long time now. I had four of them and never had a single problem; all are long retired now.

 

[bubbagscotch]

IT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION

yea it just caught my attention since I have one of these receivers. Poor dog got a little scare from hearing the popping sound. I hope mine doesn't go through that.

 

[stonecold]

Most caps wont wont explode they will bludge out and leak there guts a bit and then your box will start to act a little wacky which ten you will probably replace it.

Very rare for caps to explode to the point of fire.