Minutes: June 26, 2018

There was no formal business meeting.

Attendance was 11 members, 1 guest.

Jerry Kahn, ACØRL, presented an interesting program about reforming electrolytic capacitors. Jerry explained that the plates inside of an electrolytic capacitor slowly lose their insulating oxide layer as it sits unused for a number of years. As the insulating oxide layer depletes, the capacitor’s internal resistance lowers, eventually to nearly zero ohms. Permanent damage will occur if a sufficiently high current is applied to an electrolytic capacitor with depleted oxide layers.

The safest way to reform an electrolytic capacitor is to apply a constant low current (5 ma maximum) to the capacitor, with its rated voltage. When the capacitor is fully reformed, the current drops off sharply to a leakage current value on the order of microamps.

The next meeting will be August 28, 2018.