The Slow Mo Guys exploding Electrolytic Capacitors - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 01, 2022, 12:52:01 pm
content: Yes definitely fun, and with Medhi in the mix at least they will have a clue as to what goes on. Likely to be both some bigger better arcing, and more boom. For that they need to get some motor run capacitors in a plastic case, and see about applying 3 times rated voltage, so they go into runaway self healing and meltdown, and extrude the grey ooze from the side, or simply blow the top off if spade connector types.

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 01, 2022, 12:58:28 pm
content: Wow. Fantastic!That reminds of that one huge cap that blew up into a friends face. The aluminium cap took off from the desk and hit him straight on the lip. Loads of blood and mayhem ensued. My mate looked like he'd been in a fight for a week. Was his own mistake he'd mixed up + and -, lucky it didn't hit him in the eye.That was before all the bigger caps had the breaking points in the top of the can to vent safely.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2022, 09:41:00 am
content: Did that as a kid. Of courseIn hindsight maybe not the best idea, there were certainly some PCB-containing caps involved...

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2022, 10:14:19 am
content: I also tried blowing up one intentionally as a kid - it was not easy and the 15 V cap did survive some 25 V DC and 40 V AC for quite some time and than failed less spectecular, mainly white powder coming out.In the school in one of the physics couse rooms there was part of a capacitor stuck in the ceiling for a few weeks. The plastics case around it did not stop it.This was one of those in a red plastics case with no obvious vent.

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2022, 10:32:03 am
content: I used to blow up caps, resistors and transistors to show every one of our new apprentices at the electronics store what happens when they sell the wrong part and they should rather say they don't know if it is the right part for the job than just say yes to the customer.The reactions were quite varied. Most were intimidated, some nearly started to cry and others laughed.A 0,25W resistor across 230V is quite a nice fireworks. Don't be like bigclive: Use an isolation transformer!Also a nice effect: Just put 230V across random old PCB's. Can give fantastic sparkles.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 02, 2022, 10:52:02 am
content: I had one of the small ones explode right next to my head when I accidentally fed 220V AC into theoutputof a small power supply I was working on. It went with a bang. Never found the cap, either.

author: penfold
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2022, 10:59:13 am
content: I remember seeing a student in a first-year lab, experiencing an electrolytic blow-up for the first time. Unfortunately for the student, it was also the first time he experienced a capacitor's can getting fired up his nostril... the odds of that happening must be minute! If only we could have had the high-speed camera focused on his face, it was priceless enough at normal speed.(...and disturbing, he received proper medical attention, all safety procedures were observed and no damage was done, luckily, I've never looked toward a circuit powered on for the first time, or advocated anybody should, since).

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2022, 11:20:15 am
content: A somewhat older capture, courtesy William Osman (and, I forget why he had access to highspeed on this particular outing, but it's somewhere in his YT backlog).Tim

author: MisterHeadache
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2022, 02:07:04 pm
content: Put this in the "kiddies don't try this at home" category:Back in high school vocational electronics class (almost 40yrs ago for me), my buddies and I used to torment substitute teachers with the exploding electrolytic prank. We'd turn off the breaker at the panel for one of our work benches, connect an electrolytic cap backwards to a power supply plugged into the power strip at the work bench, and dangle the cap inside the metal drawer base of the work bench. Then one of us would stand by the breaker panel (of course at the far end of the lab) while someone called the unsuspecting teacher over to the work bench. Once the teacher was within 'range', we'd flip the panel breaker. The BOOM of the cap resonating inside the metal drawers made it even more dramatic.I don't remember us ever getting the same sub more than once...

author: Terry Bites
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2022, 02:48:55 pm
content: they need to date more often.