Re: exploding capacitors

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: BunnyKiller <bunikllr-at-bellsouth-dot-net> 

Hi Steve...

Im running 3 50KV .1uF's  Maxwells in series for 150KV total and Im pushing 
them with a seriesed set of 10KVA piggies for a total V in of 36KV in the 
primary circuit.  I  have put better than 150 hours run time on these caps 
and they are still going strong. Dont know how much longer they will last 
since I got them off of Ebay...  no telling what their previous life 
entailed...
I prefer to keep the break rate at the sine wave peaks...  more joules per 
bang...  longer streamers  ( 10-12 feet)


Scot D



Tesla list wrote:

>Original poster: "Steve Zeitler" <zeitler-at-verizon-dot-net>
>I'm reading all these postings about caps blowing up. Being the keeper of 
>a medium size coil in a commercial setting, naturally i don't want this to 
>happen to me (caps blowing up)
>The latest post mentions an asyncronous rotary gap being used  causing the 
>failure. I've not heard of this before and the coil I mention has one. Is 
>this bad and why?
>Also, the "cap" in this coil consists of 4 .1uf 30kv plastic cap brand 2 
>in series on each side of the primary giving .025uf  at 120kv. An old Ham 
>radio manual I have shows using resistors in parallel with caps when they 
>are hooked in series to equalize the voltage each cap sees. I'm not doing 
>this right now should I? I'm running 11-12kv after ballasting and I'm in 
>the process of upgrading to 2 potential transformers instead of 2 homemade 
>ones. The voltage is about the same but the delivered current is higher. 
>This allows me to run the rotary gap much faster ...more PPS. comments?
>                                                    Steve Z
>                                                     Philly
>
>