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RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in?

Posted by Lew (A) on January 10, 2011 at 15:09:59

In Reply to: RE: Capacitor cooker / Break in? posted by decca4 on January 8, 2011 at 14:05:59:

Dear decca,
For some reason, I did not read your post until now. I don't quite know why you felt I was being at all hostile to your original post, which contained many questions about capacitor break-in, most of which I am not equipped to answer. What I therefore did do was to relate to you and others my own personal experiences that lead me to believe there is some benefit to "breaking in" a capacitor, and I gave some details as to the methods I personally use, one suggested to me by a techno guy at REL who really seemed to know what he was talking about (even though I am incapable of re-stating his case), and the other devised by me just based on common sense (at least MY common sense). However, you asked many other challenging questions as well, which I admit I ignored largely because I don't know all the answers.

Now, why don't they break in capacitors at the factory (you ask)? I have no idea why not, but in fact "they" (insert any one of a dozen quality capacitor-makers) might be doing some break-in that we are not told about. Surely the best most expensive caps ARE tested for value, voltage tolerance, etc.

You also wrote, " If I here [sic] a capacitor that I find is sub standard I really would not bother trying to cook it. There are others out there that will sound fine right from the start." Yes but how many times in your life have you been able to test a capacitor before purchase? For me the answer is "never".

You also wrote, "Is there a particular reason for you and others to go the length of "cooking" it that I have missed?" As for me, I did state the reason both in my original post and just above in this post. "Cooking" (exposure to high voltage for 24-48 hours) was suggested to me by an apparently knowledgeable person at REL.

You also asked whether only polystyrenes need break-in. The question pre-supposes that we all agree that polystyrenes need break-in. Suffice to say that the process did seem to help for REL MIT RTXs. It may be my imagination, but I thought it helped with REL teflon caps, too.

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