Making dry capacitors moist.

I guess the same as putting mains voltage on a small capacitor - a lot of sizzling, no bang though since it's not in the shell, and eventually sparking once the two dry plates touch.

Berkeloid

From what I’ve read for reforming, you have to use a really low current (they often use 30-470K resistor) but I’m not sure for the voltage. I suppose it must be related to the max voltage the cap is suppose to support..

Manoel

Ethylene glycol is metabolised to oxalic acid in the body, which disrupts first the heart, then the central nervous system, then finally the kidneys. It is 'moderately' toxic with a lethal (oral) dose of about 50ml.

Dave Davies

How to reform capacitors has been well described by among others the classic computer community, see e.g. the classiccmp mailing lists. Also, shotgun replacement of all electrolytics is often not at all necessary, very ofter they are perfectly ok. Having said that, it depends. I have an old electronically controlled record player where one brand of electrolytics were all stone dead, sll the others were fine

Jonas Otter

What would happen if you put it in the hot dog cooker?

That's possible. A wrong fill or just run-out of existing fill on a production line.

Big Clive

I was thinking that too... wouldn't it be easier to just take an empty shell and solder two wires onto it, if you wanted to fake a cpacitor? And even then, the setup to produce that would probably be more expensive than an off-the-shelf cheapo capacitor

Kevin Bornewasser

The core looks too small for the can. I wonder if that's why these are dry rejects?

Wim

I have a component tester from banggood. It's was a DIY one and wasn't really expecting it to work. But its actually really good.

Neil Tonks

Woo! I was really hoping you would have a go at wetting those! Yes unexpected results but also vey informative! I have a similar tester and was just showing it off at work. The ability to test inductors is awesome as I don't own an LCR meter. I only have access to one at work... which made for interesting conversation when I brought in a hula hoop loop antenna I was building at the time to test. Now I'm using it to test a variable inductor I'm building for an antenna tuner project. Wheels within wheels!

Michael Thompson

Very interesting experiments. Thanks for sharing! I think it would seem more likely that one of the foil electrodes already comes oxidized before being rolled up (more efficient production). So maybe you just had the cap connected with inverted polarity.

I wonder what would happen if you reversed polarity on this one while charging it? Also curious if you added a few drops of something to accelerate the oxidation layer forming across the plates. Once that oxidation gets thick enough I would think maybe it would stop conducting?

Brooks Andersen

But i am not sure

Leon Schutte

I think some boric acid and water or borax and water should work a bit better

Leon Schutte

Big Clive makes my Capacitors moist... Yea I went there.... 😂

Lostngone

Etheline glycol shuts down your kidneys and you drown in your own fluids.

Charles Bruckner

Expecting a big boom, fumes and the smoke alarm to sound.

Frank

you would wonder why they would construct a capacitor 95% of the way and then leave out the electrolyte. It seems more plausible that they are purchased on the grey market as rejects and were from a production line where the electrolyte injector ran out/failed and they didn't catch it before it was too late. That would also explain why they were never wrapped.

Per 'Zapro' Jensen