Ceramic Capacitor Aging and Restoration

[jeyurkon]

As the article mentions, you have to heat it above the curie point (about 125°C for the ceramic in question) for any crystalline structure changes to take place. In the direction you want anyway.

Originally Posted by Retrovert

180° F, which is what the radio boys bake their chassis at, is about 85°C. I should have made all of this clearer. (I didn't realize it was going to be controversial.) An oven at 180° F should be close enough to 257° F (the aforementioned 125° C; it's 70% of it) for government work when it comes to reforming the ceramic capacitors, if this is what accounts for the increase in performance noted in those postings.

My supposition is that it is the temperature + duration is what that matters, and that the specific temperature is less critical. I don't know if it's a phase transition, which I doubt because the temperature is pretty low for changing a ceramic. Many reactions occur much slower at lower temperatures, but they do happen.

I don't know; I'm not a materials scientist. I just thought it was interesting.

But it is clear to me that baking radios at 180° F for a few hours not only won't hurt anything, but should improve performance and reliability.