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Planet Audio

Planet Audio PC20F Car Capacitor - 20 Farad, Energy Storage, Enhance Bass from Stereo, Warning Tones, LED Voltage Meter

    • Based on 395 reviews
Condition: New
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Availability: 14 left in stock
Fulfilled by Amazon
Arrives Tuesday, Feb 25
Order within 14 hours and 40 minutes
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Style: 20 Farad


Features

  • Audible Warning Tones for Reverse Polarity
  • Voltage Overload and Low Battery Voltage
  • E.S.R. (Equivalent Series Resistance) 0.0015 OHMS @ 120Hz
  • 3-Digit Blue Voltage Meter Displays 0.1V Increments
  • Blue LED Illuminated Window with Music Response
  • 16V Operating Voltage
  • 24V Surge

Description

Planet Audio PC20F Car Capacitor - 20 Farad, Energy Storage, Enhance Bass From Stereo, Warning Tones, LED Voltage Meter

Capacitance: 20 Farad


Brand: Planet Audio


Material: platinum


Shape: Rectangular


Operating Voltage: 16 Volts


Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No


Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 8.5 x 3.5 inches; 4.41 Pounds


Item model number ‏ : ‎ PC20F


Date First Available ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2004


Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Planet Audio


Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ China


Customer Reviews: 4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 395 ratings


Capacitance Tolerance: ‎10


Maximum Voltage: ‎24 Volts


Mounting Type: ‎Panel Mount


Upper Temperature Rating: ‎25 Degrees Celsius


Product Dimensions: ‎8.5"W x 11"H


Manufacturer: ‎Planet Audio


UPC: ‎168141295409 115970962156 172304216002 745449787876 808112568667 636210103806 999993383491 163120506095 100177379807 807031755646 100010775995 804066804790 071020554927 809386474395 999994525999 151903160619 182682354739 809187123553


Global Trade Identification Number: ‎06


Item Weight: ‎4.4 pounds


Country of Origin: ‎China


Item model number: ‎PC20F


Is Discontinued By Manufacturer: ‎No


Warranty: ‎ONE YEAR


Weight: ‎7.4 Pounds


Date First Available: September 1, 2004


Frequently asked questions

If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Tuesday, Feb 25

Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

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Similar Products

Top Amazon Reviews

    • BUY THIS CAPACITOR!!!
Take your time and use good quality power and ground cable like sky high audio OFC 4 GAUGE wire for power AND grounds. Great wire don't hesitate VERY flexible but always get a extra 25% of length no matter what wire you use think Is enough!! Capacitor was packaged ok inside planet audios MANUFACTURERS BOX NO FOAM INSIDE JUST CHEAP PLASTIC MOLDING ATTACHED BY WIRE TIES INSIDE THE CAPACITOR BOX! MADE ME NERVOUS......as a electrical component especially! Gave it a shot. I have installed many amp subwoofer combos but never a capacitor. As normal hook up your GROUNDS TURN ON WIRE TO THE CAPACITOR AND AMP. CONNECT YOUR POSITIVE OUT PUT OF THE CAPACITOR FIRST !!!!NOT INPUT TO CAP YET!! Now Using the included RESISTOR put one end into the bare POSITIVE wire coming from your battery to charge the capacitor. Now don't be scared! Plug the other end of RESISTOR to CAP INPUT. Make sure cap POSITIVE input terminal is screwed all the way down. Make contact and hold it the voltage will rise ... Mine only took 40 seconds the constant beep will stop to let you know when its done charging!! Plug in POSITIVE terminal like INSTRUCTIONS SAYS!! What a difference the constant power made!!!! For the constant clean power it fed! Sound quality GREATLY IMPROVED. VERY GOOD FOR A STOCK ALERNATOR AND BATTERY BECAUSE IT WOULD BE UNDER STRESS. WITH OUT THE CAPACITOR!! Works GREAT WITH TOTAL AMPLIFIER POWER AT TRUE 2400 WAT RMS CERTIFIED!! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2020 by Jaime S
    • I'm impressed
Review Image by Chris Chris
I want to start off by saying that I'm almost certain that this capacitor is nowhere near 20 Farad, then again it is UNDER $100, if your looking for a true 20 farad cap then your looking at the wrong price level. Now while rating is BS, the product itself works wonderfully and does exactly what I need it to do, my lights no longer dim when my bass hits, nor does my amp switch into protect mode because of severe voltage drop. I'm running an L7S15 wired to 2ohms on a kicker IX1000.1 amp in a ported box with stock alternator, big three wire upgrade, and an optima red top battery(any other questions feel free to ask). -I have no issue with the voltage display screen that other reviews mentioned. -noticed it does take about 30 seconds before it shuts off after I've cut vehicle off. -20 farad cap is the easiest to wire in, I literally tied it in my existing wiring as it has a positive and negative in and out(be sure to follow initial cap charging instructions during install they're in the booklet that comes with it) and I just ran a wire from my amps remote wire to the cap so they always cut on together ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2017 by Chris Chris
    • Great fit, does it's job!
Review Image by Brandon K Palmer Brandon K Palmer
It does it's job well, running close to 5000 watts total. This keeps my voltage stable, witch is very important in a Mercedes Benz, any voltage fluctuation will register as a problem with the computer system. This capacitor keeps that from happening!
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024 by Brandon K Palmer Brandon K Palmer
    • looking at the 20 farad capisitor (I'm getting my multi meter to see if it is 20 farad) some screws on the case were coming lose after 9 months thats crap, by the way i hooked my amp straight ...
Review Image by Stack Mojave Desert Stack Mojave Desert
It's broke, lasted 9 months pulled it out to inspect it after it wouldnt maintain any voltage and alarm was sounding, checked all my connections and all solid, problem in inside, looking at the 20 farad capisitor (I'm getting my multi meter to see if it is 20 farad) some screws on the case were coming lose after 9 months thats crap, by the way i hooked my amp straight to the 1000 CCA battery in my trunk, i took the 20 farad lol, inside my house and fuc_ the warranty i took it apart, now you people reading this don't risk injury by taking this thing apart, ok were you connect the wiring on install, those lugs are connected to a board like a mother board, 3 screws hold tge lugs tight 2 have solder on them i imagine to lock them from coming lose well they are lose explaining why it wouldn't hold voltage, what a piece of crap poorly made china crap, hell the outside screws are coming loose, I'll repair it and right now it on my shelf and i have a battery hooked to it, its holding voltage now but I'm not installing it in my car again what i will do is put one more 1000 amp battery, now that is how you store current, stay away from this pyle AxleAddict»Cars Why Car Audio Capacitors Don't Work Updated on March 28, 2016 fatfist profile image fatfist more Introduction Many car audio fanatics will use a power capacitor as an alleged secondary, passive storage device to supply current to their amplifiers. The capacitor is advertised to act as a supplemental power supply between your car’s electrical and audio system. They typically come in cylindrical shapes that are three inches in diameter and about a foot long, though other shapes are also available. They have a positive and negative terminal and possibly a third remote turn-on terminal that turns an LCD display on or off. Q: Do these devices work as advertized? A: No! Capacitors are electrical buffering devices. They are not current-generating devices. But wait! Many will swear that their headlight-flickering issues went away or were reduced after the addition of a capacitor. We will explore this phenomenon in detail. Why Are Capacitors Useless in Car Audio Systems? Because they don’t produce any current in and of themselves. This shouldn’t be news to anyone. Their purpose is to stabilize voltage by acting as a virtual “voltage wall” (buffer) to their intended devices. But, they have a very detrimental side-effect when applied to current-limited automotive systems. They buffer current flow behind the “voltage wall” and redirect it away from their intended devices: the amplifiers! Remember: Your car audio system is running mainly off your alternator, not your battery because its voltage potential is 12.7 V, whereas your alternator supplies 14.5 V. Since the alternator has the highest potential, it will supply the demanded current up to its point of saturation, whereby the battery takes over to supply the extra spikes of current demand. But in such a saturated scenario, the voltage supplied to your audio system has dropped substantially. The addition of extra batteries is only a limited band-aid fix to the problem. There is only one solution: You’re gonna need a bigger alternator! What about adding a big capacitor...3+ Farads? It won’t help your situation. It really doesn’t matter how big the capacitor is. Actually, the bigger the capacitor, the bigger the problems you will encounter. Bigger capacitors have longer charging times and draw more current from your alternator for longer periods of time. During this process, your amplifiers are starving for power because their voltage has dropped. And when their voltage drops, so does their current. Q: Why? How could this happen? I thought a capacitor is supposed to prevent this! A: No! A capacitor cannot prevent this in a limited current environment such as a DC car audio application. Your alternator is your limiting factor here because it's working overtime. The reason you installed a capacitor is because you were already approaching the limits of your electrical system. This means that your alternator is reaching its limit when you turn on your audio system, A/C, headlights, defogger, wipers, horns, navigation, TV/DVD, etc. Now that you added a capacitor into the mix, your alternator will have an additional labor-intensive job to do. The alternator now has to redirect a portion of its limited current supply away from your audio system and charge your EXTRA device: the capacitor! Of course, this doesn’t happen with home audio amplifiers because their current source is unlimited for all intents and purposes (due to high voltage). This is the reason why some home audio amplifiers can have built-in banks of buffering capacitors that don’t cause a decline in voltage and current. Due to the fact that automotive electrical systems have a very limited current capacity (i.e. 70A – 120A), the addition of a capacitor will do nothing more than add more stress to an already stressed electrical system. Why Do My Headlights Flicker Less With the Capacitor? Many people will use a capacitor because their headlights flicker at night when their audio system is pounding. They figure that the capacitor will supply these high current demands directly to their amplifiers. Hence the amplifiers won’t stress the rest of the electrical system, including the headlights. And guess what? When they add the capacitor, the headlight flickering is reduced substantially. So there you go—this is “proof” that the capacitor performed as advertized! Not so fast! Let’s analyze exactly what is happening when you add a capacitor between your amplifiers and the rest of your car’s electrical system: Since the capacitor’s positive and negative terminals are directly connected to the terminals of your amplifiers, it actually acts as a buffer for the headlights—not for the amplifiers! Remember: The accessories (i.e. headlights) and the current output by the alternator are behind the “voltage wall” of the capacitor. The current generated by the alternator is directly available and pulled by the car’s accessories due to the path of least resistance and the buffering action of the capacitor. And this happens because the capacitor’s voltage drops when drained by the amplifiers. Since the voltage potential is higher at the alternator end, which is BEHIND the capacitor, the accessories have a more stable voltage and current supply than the amplifiers do as the capacitor is slowly charging. The amplifiers are directly connected to the capacitor so they will also see a corresponding drop in voltage on their terminals, whereas the headlights won’t (because they are connected to the alternator and battery). Therefore, less available current is supplied to the amplifiers than is demanded; again, because there is a limited amount current available in this automotive system. The voltage on the amplifiers will fluctuate with every discharge and charge of the capacitor. But the accessories behind the capacitor won’t see such a drastic fluctuation in voltage or current; thus reducing the flickering of headlights. The capacitor is actually reducing the spikes of current demanded by the subwoofer amplifiers each time the subs hit hard. Hence, your audio fidelity is somewhat compromised. Yes, the amplifiers will instantly use a minimal amount of current available from the discharging capacitor, but this is substantially outweighed by the negative side-effects in the whole circuit: The capacitor’s current is very limited in duration (time), magnitude (amperes) and thus in quantity (amp-hours). It is not enough to maintain durations of extreme audio fidelity demanded by the amplifiers. There is an instant drop in voltage and current to the amplifiers when the capacitor is re-charging itself. The amplifiers are directly connected to an unstable supply of incessantly fluctuating voltage and current—the capacitor! The capacitor is an added load on the alternator, thus stealing current away from your amplifiers and recharging itself. The capacitor severely limits current to the amplifiers while it is charging. It takes milliseconds to discharge the capacitor, but much longer to charge it; especially as it ages in the extreme automotive environment. The capacitor acts like buffer for your accessories, not your amplifiers. It restricts the current being sourced to your amplifiers because there is a limited supply of it. You don’t have an AC home outlet in your car with high voltage and a virtually unlimited current supply. But My Headlights Are Flickering, What Can I Do? Whatever you do, don’t add a capacitor! It’s a waste of money. You are better off putting your money towards the BIG 3 upgrade to your alternator’s wiring using 0-guage stranded wire. This is known to solve most of the headlight flickering problems while still maintaining the fidelity of your audio system. If the BIG 3 upgrade doesn’t reduce your headlight flickering issue, then you have saturated the output stage of your alternator. An additional battery may slightly help your situation, but it will place added charging stress to your alternator and most likely reduce its life. The last resort is to install a high-output alternator of 160+ Amps. This will remedy all of your electrical problems, but it will require the BIG 3 wiring upgrade. Conclusion The current produced by the car’s alternator is difficult to get past the capacitor “voltage wall” and onto the amplifiers. The pernicious capacitor steals current from the amplifiers and gives it to the accessories (lights, ignition, A/C, defogger, etc). It acts like a fluctuating “voltage wall” that prevents a portion of the alternator’s otherwise available current from ever reaching the amplifiers. A capacitor does not produce any additional current in the system; it just redistributes current in a way that is detrimental to the audio fidelity of your system. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2018 by Stack Mojave Desert Stack Mojave Desert
    • Does the job, no dimming !!!
Review Image by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer
Review Image by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer
Review Image by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer
Best Capacitor on the market. Looks and works great, no complaints.
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024 by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer
    • Cool looking and adds a bit of extra power to tap when needed.
Review Image by Charles Charles
The unit itself is fine but it arrived looking like an open box. No paperwork, no resistor, no mounting hardware. The unit itself is good looking and looks new though it was all dusty and I suspect this was a return before I bought it. Wiring it up was easy as was charging it before use. I didn't have any issues with dimming lights and I expect these units wouldn't help much with that anyway but I wanted it just to add some addition output during peak need times and I figured it would help keep the lines clear of noise...though I wasn't hearing anything like emf anyways but a little redundancy never hurts. I do like that I can see the voltage readout at a glance and according to my multi-meter it is nearly spot on. Picture of how dirty it looked when i bought it. I of course cleaned it up after installing but you get the idea. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2018 by Charles Charles
    • Great product!
I own a car audio shop and this unit works great on a Skar Audio 4500 watts with (2) 12” Power Acoustic 2,700 watts each, woofers in a box. Lights don’t flicker anyone on a 2011 BMW 528i.
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2023 by Christian Guerrero
    • Needs improvment
Not enough
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2020 by michael

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