Added: 2 years ago
From: ehowauto
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  • Theres no positive or negative

  • i have a 10000v capaceter and its the size of a big baseball

  • screwdrivers can work, but if you have enough voltage and amperage you may end up with a welded screwdriver.

  • This is extremely useful if you have a brand new capacitor you charged from thin air. I don't know how this is useful for something attached to a board.

  • lol 100s of microFarads might not even light the bulb for a sec, u dont need a motor or anything else

  • the capacitor is charging it self... :o

  • if its safe to handle now how did he handle it in the first place?

  • why do u need to put capacitors??

  • i like my 400wv 220mF capacitor, it sparks huge :)

  • I am using a 16v 10mF cap and i like shorting it . the sparks are pretty big, but not any danger.

  • im an engineer, and this is a very foolish way to discharge a capacitor. a cap that is that small and less than 50 volts can easily discharged with a screwdriver or just short the terminals. for a high voltage capacitor doing something like that can be dangerous, depending the size of the cap and the voltage its charged to. any capacitor that could be considered dangerous (like 50+ volts) should be discharged through a resistor of a appropriate resistance and power rating.

  • Just short it out through 1Mohm 5W resistor...

  • what happens when the capacitor is carrying a charge of 240volts...?

  • a capacitor holds a charge not voltage

  • Light, heat, sound... screwdriver fits the bill

  • @pixuma ya just jam it into the table edge also, looks like a metal edge.

  • @pixuma loool best comment ever

  • @pixuma absolutely NOT :

    0:25 : "You do not by any means want to accidentally short the positive and the negative sides of the capacitor - it can cause the capacitor to explode, it can also cause arcs or shorts and could also cause electrocutions"

    were you even listening ?

  • @DrunkenGolfer HA! Never, EVER have i seen a capacitor explode from shorting the leads. If the plates inside an electrolytic capacitor were to touch, you may have a problem, but the likelihood of that ever happening is extremely minute. Capacitors are designed to discharge quickly. If you wanna fiddle with a silly lightbulb, go right ahead, but i will continue to use my screwdriver.

  • Just wondering where are you ever going to come across an uninstalled capacitor like your that needs to be discharged. That thing seems puny as if it were micro amps. I'm no safety officer or electrician, but why would you have to go through all that trouble for a little capacitor. Seems like a waste of time.

  • @SlayanicDoom if you are salvaging something or just trying an experiment for fun and a device or board has a huge capacitor, (like one in a CRT monitor case) those things can be very dangerous. Computer geeks and tinker bugs like me come across this situation plenty of times.

  • We were actually taught to discharge them with a screwdriver across the contacts in the Navy.  One guy forgot to turn the power off of the machine we were working on and he acquired the nickname..."Sparky". That was something to see.

  • i always use a 470 ohm 5 watt wirewound resistor to do such stuff. its better to slowly dischare a capacitor than fast like you are doing.

  • Thank you! I was thinking of a more safer way to discharge a Tesla coil, and this is by far the best way. I used a 180 watt bulb to rid of the extra voltage in the 5 bipolar capacitors. This is a great demonstration. Once again Thank you!

  • Why do you need a device that can handle more power when you use a capacitor with larger micro farad values? It doesn't make any sense. From what I remember the farad and resistance determines the charge and discharge times. Therefore only a capacitor with a larger voltage rating should make you use a device with a larger power rating to discharge it.

  • ok how can i safely discharge on from a UPS? especially if it is soldered to a board?

  • Good vid. Educational, clear and short. Thanks, chomsky.

  • very smart way of doing it

    i am dealing whith campasitors around 330volts and 1000 farats (i dont know how to spell the word)the campasitors are charged at 600 volts and i want a lot of times to discharge it safely i was using 230 volts lamp but somestimes it burnet the lamp with out dischanging it if you have an other siply idia how to do this please answer

  • Try linking 2 or more 230v lamps in series.

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