630TS capacitor reforming ramble

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Zenith6S321

two of the three reformed caps had a very small(at most a dozen drops) of liquid electrolyte in them, while the third was barely moist. The three open/bad electrolytic caps that I restuffed earlier were all dry.

It's my belief that moisture loss is a major cause of failure in old electrolytics. If you read up on old capacitor construction, you'll see that so-called "dry" electrolytics were only dry in comparison to earlier "wet" electrolytics that used a liquid electrolyte. Dry electrolytics used foil layers separated by paper impregnated with a moist paste or solution.

When the moisture seal on the bottom of the can fails, so does the cap, sooner or later.

Some people enjoy trying to salvage old electrolytics by reforming, but I don't have that much patience, and in my limited experience, there's no guarantee that a reformed 50- or 60-year old electrolytic will be reliable for the long haul.

Just my $0.02 . . . .

Phil Nelson

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Some people enjoy trying to salvage old electrolytics by reforming, but I don't have that much patience, and in my limited experience, there's no guarantee that a reformed 50- or 60-year old electrolytic will be reliable for the long haul.

Just my $0.02 . . . .

Phil Nelson

I'm w/Phil...Yeah, you can "Re-Form" a cap, but I'd always be afraid of it, to me, its kind of a "Pet Sematary" resurrection...Why gamble an otherwise nice restoration on a few buck's worth of caps ?