[sdiy] How do old electrolytics go bad?

[Needham, Alan]

I would regard this practice to be "quick and dirty", uncouth!
All this talk of just shorting electrolytics seems to be completely
ignoring the cap's mechanical wellbeing. It may produce significant
electromagnetic (or electrostatic?) fields which will try to flex the
foils, loading the dielectric un-necessarily and shortening the cap's
life.
It takes a few seconds to dab a resistor across the terminals, giving
lower currents, smaller sparks and cleaner underwear!

My tuppence-worth!
	Alan


-----Original Message-----
From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Steve Carter
Sent: 09 February 2009 09:24
To: Bob Weigel
Cc: Synth DIY
Subject: Re: [sdiy] How do old electrolytics go bad?

... although some engineers regard it as  
being  more than a little uncouth! ...

... I usually incorporate a bleed resistor ...

Steve

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