Thread: Canon vr-hf800
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:30 AM
waltchan waltchan is offline
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Overheating is normal for most Canon and Panasonic VCRs made during that era...

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmm83 View Post
Hi I have a CANON VR-HF800 it works fine but it gets hot after playing for an hour is this normal

is there a way to keep it cool could i add a fan to it?
YES, this is completely normal for this model. I also have a Canon VR-HF800 as well, and it runs very hot as well. The high-heat temperature is coming from the STK regulator attached and mounted onto the switching power supply case, and it uses the whole power supply case as a form of heatsink, plus the components from the power supply sharing this same heatsink as well. Very poor design. It's also one of the hottest-running VCRs on Earth, due to a very-poor ventilated design, and sometimes I use this as a heater to warm my bed sheets instead as a VCR.

I've also heard stories from owners that used to own this model before stating that this high-heat power supply can create burns and crack up a tiny hole on the main board at top, and melt some metal pieces inside if placing it tightly in a bookcase. The STK regulator also has a high-failure rate, and it's no longer available for replacement.

You can only use a battery-powered fan as the only source. There's actually no room inside to put a fan, due to a very-tight and compact space Panasonic (the manufacturer of this Canon VCR) used between 1987 and 1990.

Some of them had TONS and TONS of surface-mount caps inside (often up to 50), like the 1989 Panasonic PV-S4990 S-VHS for example, that runs even hotter and worse than this 1987 Canon VR-HF800, along with high-expected rate of early failures in few short years, due to drying-up of the surface-mount caps AND the caps at the switching power supply. Replacing all 50 surface-mount caps and rebuilding the power supply can easily reach over $300 in repair bills.

Panasonic can be nicknamed as "PanaScam" sometimes, for deceiving customers believing that their VCRs they bought were rated #1 in reliability, as stated in Consumer Reports. The correct #1, most-reliable rating should be awarded either to Toshiba or JVC in the first place (pretty much tie I think), and then Funai and Sanyo next.
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Last edited by waltchan; 08-16-2012 at 02:33 PM.
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