Exploding Electrolytic Capacitors - What's Inside?

Jeri and Kevin explore how electrolytic caps work by cutting them open and reversing the polarity under high voltage until they explode.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Capacitors
• jeri ellsworth
• fmcg
• aluminum
• exploding
• electrolytic
• how it works.

[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.

[lexichronicle2]

why boric acid?

[jeriellsworth]

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

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?"

[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