I have gradually being buying materials to build the Honey Badger amp, but due to various reason I have stopped for about 2 years. On April 2021 I bought CDE 380LX filter caps (16 of them) and have stored them in a dry room-temp place. I believe I will complete the project next year, so they will have stayed unused for 3 years. Will they have gone terribly bad until then? Is there anything I can do to save them? Maybe charge-discharge each one a few times?
Thanks for confirming that. I was going mad in the thought of wasting perfectly good capacitors due to my own ignorance.
They could have been on the mfr or distributor's shelf for years before you bought them.
Usually there is a mfr date code on larger caps.
Reform them with a DC voltage source equal to the rated working voltage, with each capacitor
connected through a resistor equal to the working voltage divided by 10mA (to limit the current).
Once the DC current through the limiting resistor drops below 0.1mA, they can be used as new.
Usually there is a mfr date code on larger caps.
Reform them with a DC voltage source equal to the rated working voltage, with each capacitor
connected through a resistor equal to the working voltage divided by 10mA (to limit the current).
Once the DC current through the limiting resistor drops below 0.1mA, they can be used as new.
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There is a shelf life. Three years probably exceeds it. Digikey USA ships caps older than shelf life sometimes; newark (franell USA) discounts old stock with a star code. You should charge these to 2 v or higher to reform them. Observe proper polarity. I used a 1990 DVM to do this on ohms scale, every time I installed a bench supply e-cap. But since that meter was stolen, new DVM use almost no voltage to power the ohms scale. I suggest you use a 3 v DC wall supply limited by a resistor, say 470 or 1000 ohm. You'll have to buy a barrel connector of the proper size. Then attach to probes or aligator clips some way. **** manufacturers keep "improving" things to make them ever more useless.
Did you consider a quick google for the manufacturer's advise ?
https://www.cde.com/capacitors/aluminum-electrolytic/
https://www.cde.com/capacitors/aluminum-electrolytic/