[Milsurplus] Opinions: Leakage in Electrolytics

[Glenn Little WB4UIV]

It has been my experience that electrolytics fail with age. When I check 
electrolytics, I check capacity, ESR and leakage. If the capacity is what 
is marked on the can or less, the capacitor is replaced. If the leakage is 
excessive it is replaced. If the ESR is high it is replaced. I feel that it 
is cheaper to replace a failed or failing capacitor while I have the device 
on the bench.

If the capacitor fail any of the above three criteria, the capacitor is bad 
and should be replaced.

Just what I do. YMMV.

73
Glenn
WB4UIV

At 12:49 PM 10/22/05, David Stinson wrote:
>I've been repairing a few Drake AC-4 power supplies lately.
>Many of the filter caps read lower than rated capacity,
>but also have low leakage current- typically 2 milliamps or
>less at full rated voltage.  In these cases, I've
>paralleled another cap across them to bring the combination
>up to spec.  This seems to have worked fine.
>If the original cap leaks worse than about 2 ma, I replace it.
>
>Your opinions on this method?
>
>73 Dave S.
>
>______________________________________________________________
>Milsurplus mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net