UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Electrolytic capacitor fails after 1 hour in service!

MrBungle · 2nd Dec 2017, 11:50 am

Hmm. Not sure they never fail. I had an expensive wet tantalum axial one blow up on me quite spectacularly in a Tektronix 465B. The only one in it! It took out everything around it requiring some rather extensive board repair.

They were mainly picked up because they were hermetically sealed and had a relatively high working voltage compared to solid tants.

They are also very expensive. Up to £100 per capacitor in low volumes.

Really the new Kemet/AVX tantalums are pretty good. I can't blow them up. I've tried. They just get hot and fall off the board, even if you reverse bias them at 2x their rated voltage.

2nd Dec 2017, 11:50 am	#26
MrBungle Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: London, UK. Posts: 3,687	Re: Electrolytic capacitor fails after 1 hour in service! Hmm. Not sure they never fail. I had an expensive wet tantalum axial one blow up on me quite spectacularly in a Tektronix 465B. The only one in it! It took out everything around it requiring some rather extensive board repair. They were mainly picked up because they were hermetically sealed and had a relatively high working voltage compared to solid tants. They are also very expensive. Up to £100 per capacitor in low volumes. Really the new Kemet/AVX tantalums are pretty good. I can't blow them up. I've tried. They just get hot and fall off the board, even if you reverse bias them at 2x their rated voltage.