Hi.

In the capacitor tester's manual they give several situations regarding to the reading:
"*** If the test capacitor is a short capacitor, it will be over-range and only figure “1” is displayed
***soaking-out capacitor, the reading will high it’s value
*** open-circuit capacitor, will displayed “0”. (maybe ±10pF at the 200pF range)
*** Display value will fluctuated, if a soaking-out capacitor connected.
What does it mean soaking-out capacitor?why the reading will be high in the soaking-out capacitor?
and why the display value will fluctuate if a soaking-out capacitor connected?
Thanks.

 

If that is Chinese English, probably (I guess) they mean the dried out capacitor, the electrolyte leaking capacitor.

 

If that is Chinese English, probably (I guess) they mean the dried out capacitor, the electrolyte leaking capacitor.

Yes,that is a Chinese English manual.And from my experience with other chinese English manuals,this one considered to be as a readable one.
So you guess it means a dried out capacitor and that sounds right.
Can you explain why will it cause the reading to flactuate?

 

Definitely "Chinglish" , must be related to an electrolytic capacitor being dried out or leaking , the value will change as it dries out more.

 

Definitely "Chinglish" , must be related to an electrolytic capacitor being dried out or leaking , the value will change as it dries out more.

As i understand,If the capacitor dry-out the reading should be low as the capacitance will decrease.
If the capacitor is leaking the reading on the tester should be high.
But in what case will the reading on the capacitor-meter show fluctuating values(will go up,go down,up etc...)?

 

The capacitance is dependant on micro-pores inner area. When the pores are closing or filled wit products of chemical destruction, then capacitance decreases and becomes unstable. The black body capacitors are electrolyte filled, whilst blue ones are gelly electrolyte using thus the virtually everlasting and with sure less ESR.

 

The capacitance is dependant on micro-pores inner area. When the pores are closing or filled wit products of chemical destruction, then capacitance decreases and becomes unstable. The black body capacitors are electrolyte filled, whilst blue ones are gelly electrolyte using thus the virtually everlasting and with sure less ESR.

Okay,but i still don't understand,in regards to the manual,why a leak(soak-out)capacitor may give two different reading results:
Why in one leakage case,the reading will be high value,while in the other leakage case the reading will be unstable,"jumpy"?

 

It's an old term that I first heard when working on old tube gear with lots of oil-filled caps.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/te.../21796328/whats-all-this-soakage-stuff-anyhow

What's all this soakage stuff, anyhow?
May 12, 1998
Of course, this column is going to be talking about the Dielectric Absorption of capacitors. But that is much too long a phrase, so we'll call it soakage, or DA. The earliest manifestation of DA...
Bob Pease

 

Back in the days of cathode ray tubes, when the tube had an internal capacitor using the glass in the bell as the dialectric with perhaps 25 kilovolts across it. After a period of operation (hours to years) the charge would "soak" into the glass.

One afternoon while talking in the engineering lab at a workbench with my boss, he pointed his pen at the anode button of a CRT that had been sitting on the bench for months. I said "be careful of the high voltage." to which he replied "What high voltage YOEOOOH!"

Some capacitors can stay charged years after they are taken out of service. That is why you sometimes find a shorting wire on high voltage capacitors.

 

Back in the days of cathode ray tubes, when the tube had an internal capacitor using the glass in the bell as the dielectric with perhaps 25 kilovolts across it. After a period of operation (hours to years) the charge would "soak" into the glass.

One afternoon while talking in the engineering lab at a workbench with my boss, he pointed his pen at the anode button of a CRT that had been sitting on the bench for months. I said "be careful of the high voltage." to which he replied "What high voltage YOEOOOH!"

Some capacitors can stay charged years after they are taken out of service. That is why you sometimes find a shorting wire on high voltage capacitors.

I'm still training kids today that the dielectric is where the energy flows in the circuit and to never assume that large insulators (like ceramic) exposed to high voltage on large plates can't bite you. That energy can alter the molecular structure of the dielectric by mechanical stress (that increases with voltage) that can polarize the internal charges across them. So always use grounding sticks on high potential terminals. That electrical energy is transformed into material stress that slowly soaks in like moisture into a sponge, that same stress can be slowly released as a energy source and cause a net separation of charge as electric potential energy.

 

According to your answers,the meaning of a soaking-out capacitor,may be:
electrical leaky capacitor,dry-out capacitor or DA capacitor.
But why does the reading on the capacitor tester will give fluctuate
/jumpy values(up and down,up and down...)rather give me just a steady
higher capacitance(than rated)value?
As you can see on my first post(the sentences in bold):
"***soaking-out capacitor, the reading will high it’s value
*** Display value will fluctuated, if a soaking-out capacitor connected."
Soaking-out(electrical leaking...)capacitor may give higher reading or
fluctuated(jumpy)values reading.What is the reason for the fluctuating?

 

Please know that what Bob Pease was discussing was Dielectric Absorbtion and ADsorbtion, of various materials." His insight and understanding was far beyond what is covered in the capacitor tester manual referenced by the TS.

There is a condition of dielectric re-forming that some equipment is able to provide. So that is probably what the manual is poorly translating. My rather ancient "EICO" brand bridge-type resistor and capacitor checker is also able to provide that function. Still useful after 60 years of use.

 

Please know that what Bob Pease was discussing was Dielectric Absorbtion and ADsorbtion, of various materials." His insight and understanding was far beyond what is covered in the capacitor tester manual referenced by the TS.

There is a condition of dielectric re-forming that some equipment is able to provide. So that is probably what the manual is poorly translating. My rather ancient "EICO" brand bridge-type resistor and capacitor checker is also able to provide that function. Still useful after 60 years of use.

Sure but soaking has a long association with capacitance and capacitors so it wasn't just "Chinglish". They were at least in the ball-park with that translation.

 

Please know that what Bob Pease was discussing was Dielectric Absorbtion and ADsorbtion, of various materials." His insight and understanding was far beyond what is covered in the capacitor tester manual referenced by the TS.

There is a condition of dielectric re-forming that some equipment is able to provide. So that is probably what the manual is poorly translating. My rather ancient "EICO" brand bridge-type resistor and capacitor checker is also able to provide that function. Still useful after 60 years of use.

Okay,i understand,but what about my question?
Do you mean that the dielectric re-forming of the capacitor may cause the reading at the capacitor-tester's value to fluctuate(up an down)while it re-forming?
The manual use the term"soaking-out"twice,which it probably means electrical leaky capacitor.One time it says that leaky capacitor will cause the reading to be higher than the rated value or(second time)it may cause the reading to fluctuate.I can understand why the reading may be higher,but why may the reading be fluctuate i don't understand?

 

Okay,i understand,but what about my question?
Do you mean that the dielectric re-forming of the capacitor may cause the reading at the capacitor-tester's value to fluctuate(up an down)while it re-forming?
The manual use the term"soaking-out"twice,which it probably means electrical leaky capacitor.One time it says that leaky capacitor will cause the reading to be higher than the rated value or(second time)it may cause the reading to fluctuate.I can understand why the reading may be higher,but why may the reading be fluctuate i don't understand?

My (not recent) experience using my EICO brand bridge-type resistor and capacitor checker was that there were indeed some fluctuations in the leakage current over time. That is, perturbations with a period of a second or more. In addition, the leakage current most often would decrease over a period of hours. So the re- forming claim is valid, but it does not always happen. Some capacitors did not show a reduction in leakage current, and in some others, the reduction was not enough to make the capacitor useful again.

 

I guess that i just take the fluctuating phenomenon as a side effects of
a leaky capacitor,that may sometimes occur and sometimes not.
Thanks everyone for the help.