[Hallicrafters] No PCB's in caps

[Chuck McGregor]

FWIW,

Catalog listings for 1945 and 1968 show Cornell Dublier capacitors 
advertised as using Dykanol dielectric oil.
Dykanol is listed as a pcb in the EPA consumer factsheet on Polychlorinated 
Biphenyls.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/dw_contamfs/pcbs.html

Listings from Sprague for 1945 show "oil impregnated, wax filled" 
capacitors, but no oil-filled. And they don't say what kind of oil.
In 1968 Sprague offered capacitors with "Vitamin Q" impregnant. Anybody 
know what Sprague's  "Vitamin Q" was ?

GE  1945 catalog listings show "Pyranol Capacitors for Amateur Radio 
Equipment"  Pyranol,strangely isn't on the EPA list at the above link, 
although other web sites assert Pyranlol was GE's tradename for 
Monsanto-produced PCB's.

Aerovox catalog listings from 1945  indicate they used Hyvol in their 
oil-filled capacitors.  Hyvol  (and Pyranol) are listed as PCB tradenames 
at this site:  http://www.nttworldwide.com/pcb.htm

It would appear that at least some of the capacitors in our boatanchors are 
filled with PCB oils.
(The 1945 catalog sheets mentioned above are all from "Radio's Master", the 
1968 from Newark)

--Chuck N7RHU

At 04:56 AM 10/16/2003, Bill wrote:

>PCB's were put in caps at one time but this practice, oil, is now banned
>in this country.
>
>However, the caps the PCB's fluid was put in were high voltage capacitors
>used for industrial power distribution.  The caps are/were used for power
>factor correction in very heavy reactive load situations.  To my knowledge,
>PCB oil was never placed in small power supply caps.  The advantage of
>PCB oil over regular mineral oil was a higher flash point, higher
>dielectric strength and more efficient heat transfer.
>
>A distinct difference between PCB oil and regular insulating oil is the
>smell.  PCB oil (pure), has a decidingly sweet odor.  Mineral oil, the
>predominant oil, either has no smell or very little smell and that smell
>is an oil smell we all know.
>
>Again, pure PCB oil, known as Askeral, Inerteen, Pyranol etc., has a
>very sweet smell.  If your oil smells this way, there is a good bet it
>is PCB oil but I kind of doubt it.
>
>K2WH
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: hallicrafters-admin at mailman.qth.net
>[mailto:hallicrafters-admin at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Rich Oliver
>Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 14:42 PM
>To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
>Subject: [Hallicrafters] No PCB's in caps
>
>
>Several years ago I noticed that a couple of my oil filled HV caps had
>started to leak.  I did not know how excited I should get about this
>development so phoned the engineers at Sprague.  They told me they have
>never used PCB's in any of their caps; PCB's were only used in
>transformers.  The tone of the fellow I talked to was of forbearance,
>like he really wished we would all get a clue and leave him alone.  It
>was his opinion that nobody ever put PCB's in caps.  Of course that was
>one engineer at one company....
>
>73, Rich
>
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