Filter
Most people don't realize it, but they use potentiometers nearly every day. They use them in their homes, in their cars and at their jobs. Anyone who has ever turned the volume up on their car radio for a favorite song or dimmed the lights when watching a movie has used a potentiometer. Sears carries a variety of potentiometers (pots) for your various AV needs. From common carbon-based rotary single-turn pots to linear slide pots, you can get the right potentiometer to suit your needs.
The primary uses for potentiometers are for controlling volume on an audio device and dimmers for lighting. You can choose from single- and multi-turn rotary pots in varying sizes that can be used in a volume knob on a stereo or as bass, treble and track knobs on a sound board. You can also find hardware like slide pots, which are commonly used as faders or dimmers on a light switch. At Sears, look for a wide range of electrical components like potentiometers and transistors to meet your electronics needs.
Pots come in all different shapes and sizes. The commonly used rotary pots and slide pots, as well as a variety of others, have various purposes and functions. Trimpots are often used for set-and-forget electronic equipment that is calibrated after manufacturing, and digipots, which are digital potentiometers that can be used to adjust voltage much like transformers in a circuit. You'll want to make sure you're selecting the right size pot with the correct range and tolerance. For example, if you're selecting a potentiometer for a guitar amp, you're going to want to make sure it can handle the power.
Be sure you're selecting pots made of the correct material, too. The resistive material contained in a potentiometer can affect the device you're building or repairing, much like inductors can affect the flow electric circuits. Sears offers the most common potentiometers made of carbon, as well as wire-wound pots, pots made of conductive plastic and trimpots made of cermet (ceramic/metal). Depending on the electrical device you're dealing with, the resistive material in the potentiometer can affect the stability, noise level and lifespan of the device. The manufacturer's data for a specific pot can give you all the details you need to be as accurate as possible.
Potentiometers are more of a part of daily life than people realize. They can pump up the volume when you're listening to tunes at a party, or dim the lights before you give a presentation at work. Whatever your pots project may be, Sears has the potentiometers you need. We offer everything from standard rotary pots for the volume knobs on sound mixers to slide pots for dimmer switches when you need to fade to black.