How to Recondition Capacitors - and safely power old Equipment with Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors

In this video 'How to Recondition Capacitors - and safely power old Equipment with Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors', I will present the Military Handbook (MIL-HDBK-1131) that talks about proper storage and reconditioning Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors. I'll also talk about the reliability of Aluminum Electrolytic capacitors and why proper de-rating is necessary to prolong the life of them. Recapping audio equipment - especially recapping audio amplifiers is fairly common. I'll talk about this as well. #Recondition Capacitors #ReCaping #Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors

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[bz]

Eddie, I listened to this presentation while I was out working in the yard and felt like I was right back with you at work! Miss our times together. Love your vids. Best, Barry Z.

[KlaweKlapki]

I got those old capacitors from tube stuff most of them got reformed by me and work like charm

[ronsingh]

Ahh man, this was good to see, been some 40 years since I reformed caps, thanks for the refresher and the use of that Matrix LCR meter. Thanks for the work you put into this!

[Robert-hrsh]

Reforming caps and testing, always the thing to do! And remembering that safety is always important too when testing any components or assemblies.

[CircularMirror]

Thank you for this video. Cool to see how big capacitor are used and eventually wearout.

[MrDoneboy]

Excellent video for anyone who deals with electrolytic caps in electronics. Thanks again, Eddie!

[fredflintstone]

Great video, lots of good detail. As a hobby I work on old gear, much of it being tube type, and when I get a piece of equipment first thing I do is to bring it up slowly on a variac transformer letting it sit for a while at the lower voltages and gradually increasing.
When reforming old electrolytics directly, I'll use my bench power supply and set in a current limit and let them run for hours before checking them. If I'm looking at more than one I'll series them together with jumpers.
Not as detailed or precise as what you're doing, but just working in the ballpark here.
For looking at power factor, wattage etc. readings on lines powered equipment I use a Kilowatt meter I picked up on ebay cheap. It's a very handy tool with lots of line power monitoring uses. I think I paid around 15 bucks for it.
Regarding testing transformers and motors I like to hipot test the insulation.

[PlaAwa]

Looking forward to hearing more about those amps you were thinking of building... is there a possibly project around the corner? looks like you chose chunky parts.... i love anything that's overengineered...

[versace]

Hi Eddie, really like your video, lots of great info. Thank you for the video. 🎉😁👍

[hernancoronel]

At around 33:00 it is not clear how you hookup that (lovely) HIOKI meter, are you measuring the voltage drop across the capacitor? If so, you should be subtracting whatever current passes through the meter but you do not mention anything about it. Thanks for the video!

[jstro-hobbytech]

Jesus. How did I miss 4 of your videos. Haha. Also you have a new voice over mic. Great video though man. Caps are your Dilithium Crystals haha

[ironman]

Have a box of NOS electrolytics from the 70s from when my dad fixed TVs that I should check out. Have a Heathkit it28 with a leakage function on a toggle switch that makes it easy to use to reform them offering a large range of voltages as you slowly bring them up to operating values.

[petersage]

When I saw the title of this video, I was worried that you might be talking about trying to reform capacitors in really old electronic equipment (of similar vintage to what Paul Carlson frequently showcases on his channel). Those really are a different beast from modern vintage electrolytics, especially ones made after the capacitor plague. Not surprising yours all tested good, considering they were apparently kept in fairly climate-controlled conditions.

Never seen that military service manual, but much of it seems similar to the Panasonic application note I've read on reforming capacitors that have spent time in storage. (I'm sure the other quality capacitor makers have similar application notes; I'm just a bit of a Matsushita fanboi.) I noticed that "condition a(1)" specifies 95 F or lower; I had a bunch of Wun-Hun-Lo caps that spent a few summers in an uncontrolled environment (backyard storage shed in Cackalacky) during a time when I didn't have much opportunity to work on electronics, so naturally I disposed of them when I moved. They were common values and their quality brand replacements weren't too spendy anyway, so it really didn't make sense even testing their ESR. Reforming makes a little more sense for big, high-value capacitors like the ones you featured in this video.

[sparkyskinner]

Hi Eddie, Great Video on Cap reconditioning. I also use an ESR meter on caps just as another check. You mention the ESR measurement but don't actually take any ESR measurements of any of the caps. I built the Blue ESR meter kit quite a few years ago and use the meter often.

[paeka]

1977 1978 some where that time i had made my self a 145 mhz 😮amplifier with QQE06 40 about the same of 829B off course all the parts from a junkbox making about 150-200Watt in a short time, When 😢the Plate, s start RedHot, then i passed the mike to my contact 😅 . And hoping he makes a long story to get some time to cool the tube, Some Ham radio friends came visiting to see that amp, during the demo a capacitor exploded 32uF 250 Volts or so the whole radio shack was covered with pieces of foil and silver paper10 minutes later everything worked again with a little less nice from the junk box 😊

[waltercheatle]

Hey Eddie, A very timely video since I too have a bunch of big caps to test, plus I have some old equipment that hasn't been fired up for sometime. I don't have a redfish and am wondering if the Kaiweets digital clamp meter would suffice to monitor what is going on. Thanks a bunch!!

[vintageaudioreview]

I am curious why you did not use the Sencore 39G154 leakage push button adapter when measuring the leakage with the Sencore "Z meter". Informative video.

[gumfber]

Are you making amps for Disaster Area or something? Those are huge. 42

[ford]

Anonym.
Hello. It would be very interesting to make a video and talk about what happens if you use a 100v capacitor where it was originally 50v.
Or 50v where there was originally a 5v capacitor.

what happens to the microfarad value during use and what happens to the reforming of the capacitor, or will the life be shorter when you apply 5v to a 50v capacitor or 50v to a 100v
Or 50v to a 200v capasitor.

Can someone say something about this?

[amplidude]

I like to start new day nice and slow, laying extra long in bed, enjoy my coffee, capacitors are a lot like people, who as kids enjoyed sesamy street