More on Capacitors & Great Video

A informative, albeit a bit goofy series of information videos' by a Nichicon rep, can be found at Digikey's website

Dr Capacitor - Episodes 1 through 9

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Being a resident of the Chicago area, it sure sounded  to me like Dr Capacitor had a "Chicago accent", and then, I saw the 847 area code for the 
phone number, and I was right 

Bob Anders has a great video on electrolytics:

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Pay close attention to his comments on voltage testing and capacitance testing. He knows his stuff.

Bob is really good on the old TV sets, especially the Philco Predicta sets.


Now if you see a tubular 'lytic with the vent hole bulged out, split open, or a whitish crystalline material; REPLACE. Same with can types. 

On screw base 'lytics, often you will see a crystalline material leaking out the top, and rarely the base.- Replace.

 That is the electrolyte leaking out. 

Tip on screw base 'lytics: When replacing the cap, simply take a 2 lug or more tag strip and solder tot eh connector on the defective screw base 'lytic. Connect your replacement to the INSULATED TERMINAL!

Never just solder a replacement 'lytic across a defective one. If the defective one leaks or develops a short you can damage the equipment.

Same on a can 'lytic, and replace ALL the sections. Odds are if one section went bad the others will follow, and most are a real PITA to replace, so do it right the first time.

You will notice that some can caps are mounted directly to the chassis, and the twist prongs soldered to the chassis. This insures a good, solid ground. Use a big soldering gun of at least 200 watts or larger for this. Now some cans will be mounted to a metal plate riveted to the chassis. This means a solid ground to the chassis too.

   HOWEVER--- You will find can caps mounted on a phenolic plate. This means the CAN GROUND IS ISOLATED FROM THE CHASSIS.  Mount your replacement to the insulated mount also. Typically this is used on  "Hot Ground" sets or in voltage doubler configurations. If the can has an insulating sleeve, and your replacement does not, take it off the bad cap and put it on the replacement.
 Believe me, bumping your hand on a isolated ground cap can wake you up really quick and cuss the idiot who did not put the insulator back on.

Take care when removing the ground twist locking pins from the phenolic insulating plates. They break easily! Real easily!
 Replacement phenolic plates are available, but you may have to look a bit for them.

You will also find tubular wax dipped 'lytics in radios and TV sets. ----Pay close attention to polarity.---- Sometimes they were used with POSATIVE GROUND sets or hot chassis. Do not get your ground lead to the wrong spot. If you hook it up wrong, much smoke, noise, and flying shrapnel will happen. Also embarrassment, and much amusement from bystanders, plus a mess to clean up.

   Note: I HAVE been hit by flying shrapnel from exploding 'lytics when a fellow tech wired one into a TV set backwards. Boy, I am glad I wear glasses. As it was, I got a couple of cuts on my face and a scratch on my lense.