Exploding Electrolytic Capacitors - What's Inside?

[reaper00020]

Stuff blows up @ 5:41

[gollumondrugs]

Oh Jeri, just blow it up!!!!

[blackmailer26]

Lol. Just to clear up a misconception at 1:22. You can't really apply voltage. Voltage is just a measurement of potential difference between two points of a circuit. Granted, voltage is more important than current with respect to capacitors, but what you're really applying is current on a circuit to charge a capacitor.

Other than that, very informative stuff. Thank you very much.

[OneEyedJack1970]

The MSI board actually blew a cap clean off of its base. The even crazier thing is, it kept working for a while after that.

[PhuckHue2]

you have to cover the top of the capacitor with JB Weld. this will prevent the boring hissing smoke effect. then you'll have a great explosion :-)

[jeriellsworth]

@PhuckHue2 I like how you think!

[TheSolarmike]

I would like you to make a video about dc to dc converters and how they work. They are now being used in electric drive trains quite a bit.

Do you know bill dube or john waylen ? You must. ( killacycle) (plasmaboy)

[jeriellsworth]

@TheSolarmike I'm not sure if I know John.

[TheSolarmike]

@jeriellsworth

I discovered how to explode capacitors at the ripe age of 11 and have been fascinated with caps ever since. I have a huge collection of caps.

Once I encased a 40 volt 64000 uf cap in concrete and connected it up to a 240 V 40 A stove outlet. And it kept tripping the breaker and then BOOOOM! It was better than dynamite

I and showing your videos to my friends and they love them

[ChimpinApeEasy]

@TheSolarmike Of course it was better; dynamite doesn't have shrapnel. Plus the elephant of surprise must have added to the effect. Now, combine Jerie's brother prank & your concrete encasement method and what do you get? One killer April fools day. "Hey, why is that cement block emitting that ear piercing whistle.........Oh, hey God, what's up?"

[lexichronicle2]

why boric acid?

[jeriellsworth]

@lexichronicle2 I believe I read that it forms a uniform oxide layer.

[lostnmusik]

Hi Jeri, I am a retired Elect Tech . Two months into my “On the Job” training cycle, I was replacing some shorted diodes on a 1973 Tube type TV. I didn’t know that the full metal jacket 4 “ high and 1 inch round 300V Electrolytic shorted at the same time but it failed to explode before the breaker tripped. I reset the breaker, changed out the diodes and plugged it in. The concussion left me deft for about 1/2 hour. This was my baptism under fire. Great Video - Bob E. Mexico, Maine

[syphilistic]

Good caps made by Japanese manufacturers like Panasonic, Nippon Chemicon, and Nichicon will easily outlast the equipment.

The cheap Chinese caps are the junk caps you are refering to.

Don't make such a sink or I'll stop getting my free monitors and LCD TVs for nothing :-).

[Watcher3223]

Actually, provided the equipment isn't damaged frm external causes (power surges and so on), the equipment may outlast electrolytic caps.

Quality caps from most Japanese manufacturers will outlast the cheap Chinese stuff, but understand the limits nonetheless.

Electrolytics leak, dry up, and/or develop high ESR. And, they can even break down if you don't use them often enough.

Because they use a liquid electrolyte, electrolytics are one of the weakest links in a circuit.

[Membrane556]

There's actually an interesting story of corporate espionage behind that.

Most Chinese caps are based off an electrolyte formula stolen from a Japanese company they either did not the get complete formula or were unable to manufacture the stabilizer.

[Watcher3223]

@Membrane556

Yeah, I think the Japanese company was Rubycon.

[Ibringthetruth1]

caps suck.

they are the main reason electronics don't work after a few years.

they leak.

[290768]

i love to know whats in stuff

[DifferentDummer]

Good video on what is inside an electrolytic capacitor. Much appreciated!

[OredhotchilipeppersO]

bumseks

[megadud20]

Awesome segment! I want one of those capacitors now!

[giefuser]

Thanks for a great vid. Could you go more into details about reforming caps? that would be awesome!

[kinglonewolf104]

Thats an awesome video Jeri. I have been meaning to learn more about electronics (including electrolytic capicators) and this has helped a great deal - well the first part of the video, the last part is just fun ;)

&eB

[kchididdy]

There's actually a very interesting issue right now called the capacitor plague. apparently, an attempt at industrial espionage went awry and resulted in bad electrolyte formulations. these bad capacitors are supposed to be floating around in very large quantities.

[OneEyedJack1970]

@kchididdy Yeah -- a lot of motherboards from around 1999 through the next few years have them. I've got a couple of dead boards (MSI 6167 & FIC SD-11), and a couple that are extremely flakey (FIC VA-503+ & FIC KA-6130) from that era.

I've thought about replacing the caps to get the boards working again, but I've got half a dozen working computers already, and I really don't need any more 350-900 MHz machines.

[svofski]

Jeri, what's up with aspect ratios in all your videos? They appear as if 4:3 was forced to be widescreen, it doesn't look right.

[jeriellsworth]

I have a mix of 4:3 cams and 16:9 HD. Then the aspect ratio gets messed up from George when he uses his laptop.

It's about the content not the production values. IMHO

[lamelama22]

@jeriellsworth Well that would be a production problem b/c they're simply not being imported properly into whatever video editing program is being used, otherwise the 4x3 footage would be a square in the 16x9 frame. It should just be a couple of clicks to correct... :)

[jeriellsworth]

I'll see if I can re-render this tonight and fix the audio problem. The last bit of dialog wasn't important. Just us being silly.

[riklmr]

Yeah, silly. We want that (too)!

[kinglonewolf104]

You know we like to hear you being silly! :)

&eB

[riklmr]

Aaaahhhhhhww, the dialogue after the high speed film is lacking. Bummer.

Good segment though!

[Textra1]

Some dielectric material can be carcinogenic, so you might want you take care not to breath any of it in. Especially if they explode.