¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThe most spectacular line condenser explosions I have ever experienced happened over 50 years ago. I was in high school and worked? at a TV shop. In the summer of 1968, a store told us they had several TVs that were blowing fuses in customer's homes. We picked them up, small B&W consoles, and took them to the shop. I removed the back cover from one, and connected an interlock cheater cord. I was rewarded with an ear-ringing explosion and a shower of aluminum confetti. The bench breaker did not trip because we also repaired window air conditioners and the breaker was 20 amp. We replaced the line condensers in all of the sets with 1000 volt mylar condensers of the same rating after (hopefully!) picking and vaccuming all of the remains of the bad condenser out. A few days later, the manufacturer sent us a letter saying they had gotten a bad batch of condensers and that we should replace any of them we found. Another manufacturer who built a very popular 12 inch portable TV used an under rated condenser in the vertical deflection circuit that would explode frequently. Fortunately, it was easy to turn the set upside down over a trash can and blow the aluminum shards out of it with a vacuum cleaner. ???? Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY
On 4/18/24 0:50, Ed Breya via groups.io
wrote:
Totally agree - I've seen enough go bad even in 120V land. Sometimes it's hardly noticeable, with a blown fuse and a burned up part, while in others it makes a huge mess, with melt-downs and severe smoke and goop damage. It's not typically an emergency, but a good idea to get rid of them ASAP. A lot of times I find them in gear I'm fixing for other reasons, and if easy enough to access, I just solder-delete or clip them out and figure on doing replacement later (or never, depending on the deal). If not easy to access and cut out on the spot, I try to make a mental note (yeah right) to remember and deal with it soon. If one burns up, it should never be a surprise. |
