Electronics > Beginners
Exploding 400V Electrolytic Capacitors on multiple devices
Cyril.Anthony:
Hey guys, today a super weird thing happened at my home. All the devices which has 400v rated capacitors failed at the same time with explosion and smoke. I live in asia so we use 220v. For some reason the voltage drops to 170v and spikes to 410v and it happens randomly. I noticed this yesterday. No heavy load is run in the same line. I asked my neighbor if he had any problem regarding electricity since both of our connection comes from overhead cable he said he had no issues. My theory is that my Neutral wire connecting to the overhead cable has come loose. Is my theory correct or is there any other way this could have happened.
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janoc:
--- Quote from: Cyril.Anthony on December 24, 2018, 02:12:52 pm ---Hey guys, today a super weird thing happened at my home. All the devices which has 400v rated capacitors failed at the same time with explosion and smoke. I live in asia so we use 220v. For some reason the voltage drops to 170v and spikes to 410v and it happens randomly.
--- End quote ---
If your mains spikes to 410V then you have a major problem and the capacitors blowing out are actually the least that could happen - 410*sqrt(2) - 580V after the rectifiers, so no wonders the caps are blowing up.
Call your electricity company, there is some serious problem somewhere. The faster it gets fixed the better - this could cause serious fires, injuries and damage.
Cyril.Anthony:
Thanks for your advice. I have called the power company they said they will take a look. I wanna know if it is on the power line or bad wiring inside my home
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SeanB:
Most likely will be at the power provider side, unless your property has 3 phase power loss of neutral means loss of power, while on the provider side loss of neutral means things go bang as whichever phase has the lowest load gets the highest voltage. Random loss points to the fault likely being at a pole connection somewhere between your house and the distribution transformer.
The likely cause is a poor joint when some tap was made, which resulted in the neutral cable being broken internally, but still connected by contact, and with movement in the wind, load and time it arcs and goes open intermittently, leading to every house downstream of the fault having intermittent neutral connections. If you live in a block of apartments the fault could be in the central power room as well, loose neutral.
Only thing is to have the power company come out and inspect, as all this wiring is their property.
Zero999:
Do any of the devices work after replacing the capacitors?
Yes it sounds like a poor neutral connection. Try measuring the voltage between neutral and earth: it should be under 1V.
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