Electroboom

I'm studying electrical engineering, and I can tell you a few things about electrolytic capacitors: They can be represented as a standard capacitor with a parallel diode, which is a good representation of how it shorts power when placed with the wrong polarity. Electrolytic capacitors also have the highest ESR out of all capacitors, so low voltages won't necessarily be enough to destroy it as that ESR limits the current going through it, thus reducing the buildup of heat and ultimately pressure. The wikipedia page stating 1.5V is enough to destroy one fails to acknowledge that factors such as size and technology can influence how much fault it can handle. And yes, the grooves on the large capacitors are a countermeasure for overpressure events. Emphasis on 'large' because small ones lack this feature and tend to literally go boom rather than pop and puff, just like the cheap ones you tested.

This channel is extremely underrated.

We tried 6volt capacitors on 230 volts. Works everytime ! We got cylindric impacts in the ceiling 😂

So that's why Star Trek instrument panels were always exploding.I hate it when that happens.

The other reason you see the bigger pops with the other video was because the smaller caps don't have vents like the bigger ones do, and therefore pressurize more.

Never stop making videos like this❤

In my youth (early teens) I tested hundreds of electrolytic Capacitors on 120 Vac. most went off like a firecracker with stinky smoke. The AC was very effective at destroying them.

Cool investigation!

1:57 What you see is basically a galvanic cell. You overcame the cell voltage where the surface coating inside the electrolyte is starting to get stripped off. You are basically dissolving the plates of the capacitor into random oxidized junk and whatever gases that electrolyte breaks down to. A similar example would be an HHO cell. Under 1.23V absolutely nothing happens, then above that you start generating H2 and O2

Thank you!

I know the smell of exploded capacitors very well 😂

I used to work on industrial electronic systems. I one witnessed a 48VDC drive fail when it was mistakenly wired in reverse. I think the cap was 22000uF rated 63V. It split at the top as you would hope but produced huge amounts of fumes. We had to clear the shop and open a big roller shutter door for about 15 minutes to clear the air.

Had a tech classmate whose roomie enjoyed placing a small electrolytic in the bathroom shaver outlet before he would return from evening classes. When he turned the light on the outlet went live & exploded the capacitor. Once it hadn't made contact & he pulled it from the outlet. It connected on being touched & popped in his hand. They discontinued the prank.

There are three caps on the Amiga 4000's CPU daughterboard that were put in backwards from the factory back in the 90's. Most of them still work fine.

Are yes, this is an example of the safety vent activating by the way, the safety vent is like the pattern on the top 2:45 2:45

Moma told me not to look at eye's of the exploding capacitor, But mama that is where the fun is..

"reverse the polarity of the flux capacitors!" -Someone very wise

it is interesting to do with tantalum capacitor. I often have tantalum reversed in my servise department. The tantalum cap when reversed don't show damage BUT slowly present a heavy short.

It'll go BANG!!

There is variation from cap to cap, on how much pressure is needed to pop it. To get a bigger bang use much more dc voltage and current say 150V at 100amps+, the idea is to cause the cap to heat up almost instantly, causing a sudden increase in expansive gases, like a bomb. Further you can try to glue up and block the vents, and get enough Power to smash the glass bottle. AC is also works well to blow up caps. Try discharging a huge cap bank 2kV, 10kA? into a small reversed cap, even with A vent, the gasses will expand so quickly the vent will be too slow to release the pressure and the whole thing will explode.

Nice experiments! I suspect the ones that didn't blow properly were limited too much by the PSU current limit. And the PSU might be slow to resume full output after hitting the limit. We saw the voltage drop way down.

Its ok to use polarized electrolytic caps in reverse, provided the voltage is very low, this can occur to block the dc path in cheap audio circuits. The amount of reverse voltage will depend on the cap size and ratings. Non polarized electrolytic capacitors are also available, they are found in cheap audio passive crossovers. Unlike other types of capacitors, the electrolyte dries out over time, where the capacitors need to be replaced, but electrolytic capacitors by far have the highest capacity for there physical size.

You can actually repair them by reverse biasing them in a controlled way. Look up "reforming electrolytic capacitors". Also you should just use the alligator clips. The electrolyte is corrosive and will destroy your bread board.

Handy way to make a detonator.

The real question is why would it explode there's just two metallic sheets inside filled with electrolyte and a separator so how does it actually explode, my guess is that electrolyte boils pressurising the cap making it go boom but why only the reverse polarity does it ?

I would be more scared with that glass jar being on top of it. The cap exploding is violent but the glass jar shattering is even more scary as it can cause real nasty cuts.

I've accidentally put 120vac across an electrolytic and some diodes in a bias tee, and that definitely does it spectacularly.

*Electroboom likes this*

I will try this at home.

question: i use a large cap across the infeed to a very electrically noisy fan…it markedly reduces noise down from 2.4Kz to less than 100hz …there is flyback when power is cut…should i worry about inductive feedback blowing out cap? circuit is 12v @2 amps…cap is rated at 200v…thanks

wait capacitors have polarity- i'm glad i learned this before i started playing with the big ones i found in a dead stereo lol

Try the same but with tantalum capacitors....

Try the onces without protections and see

😂 no I can't afford the bread boards

Udaya❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Next time please use tantalum capacitors. These are known to develop internal short circuits or be sensitive to reverse polarity. With Tantalum the marking is the positive pole. With Elko the marking is the negative.

And some really small like 0.22 µF don’t even have it 4:45

I hope you saved that magic smoke, in case it leaks out of a future project.

Likely because the pressure buildup was too fast 4:23

50v cap pop at 12volt?

Why do they have any polarity and what makes them explode inside? That is the real question...

It will boom. I did that years ago in school’s electronic lab. I got insulations all over my face. Others: 😮

So I was right about the video being about exploding capacitors

It's going to blow Joe make sure it's not pointing at your face

Дай му!

If you do it right, it feels *and* smells wrong.

Are you left handed

00:00 Spoiler: nothing will happen. 😂

👇Electroboom chain⛓️👇

I tried this 10/10 caps survive, no explosions, disappointed

The rated voltage is what’s important. You put -12v across a 50V cap, but if you put -50V it would have been violent. So the premise is true: do NOT use electrolytic caps backwards or they will explode. They WILL explode.