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Re: Under what "right" conditions, may I learn from you? (nt)

The bang comes from the release of electrolytic fluid caused by resistive heating. The fluid releases through a designed vent or the side of the capacitor. This is not usually an instantaneous condition and may take several minutes to several hours to build up enough heat and pressure to blow up the cap. If you have a temperature gauge you can measure the heat build-up. By observing the voltage drop caused by the reversed cap you can calculate the amount of current draw caused by the unhappy cap. Your cap will explode, just give it some time.

I have observed this personally when, early in my building career, reversing an electrolytic cap rated at 35 volts DC in a 20 volt DC circuit. The ejection of boiling fluid went away from me, thankfully, but the loud bang made my wife aware of my incompetence.
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