Vaporizing electrolytic caps a health risk ?

07-30-2008, 07:48 PM

Hello,

I asked:

"Which components on a pc motherboard are most likely to fail first because
of overheat ?".

Somebody answered:

"
Probably electrolytic caps - they are usually the first to fail; heat
causes them to dry out.
"

Does this mean the fluid that is inside vaporizes ?!?

Could this be a health risk to humans ?

Bye,
Skybuck.

07-30-2008, 08:35 PM

07-30-2008, 09:11 PM

"Skybuck Flying" <> wrote in message
news:18900$4890b772$541981a9$ b.home.nl...
> Hello,
>
> I asked:
>
> "Which components on a pc motherboard are most likely to fail first
> because of overheat ?".
>
> Somebody answered:
>
> "
> Probably electrolytic caps - they are usually the first to fail; heat
> causes them to dry out.
> "
>
> Does this mean the fluid that is inside vaporizes ?!?
>
> Could this be a health risk to humans ?
>
> Bye,
> Skybuck.
>

Please chew on some then keep us informed if you get sick.

07-30-2008, 10:40 PM

On Jul 30, 5:12*pm, "nobody >" <usenetharves...@aol.com> wrote:
> BobW wrote:
> > "Skybuck Flying" <BloodySh...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:18900$4890b772$541981a9$1. nb.home.nl...
> >> Hello,
>
> >> I asked:
>
> >> "Which components on a pc motherboard are most likely to fail first
> >> because of overheat ?".
>
> >> Somebody answered:
>
> >> "
> >> Probably electrolytic caps - they are usually the first to fail; heat
> >> causes them to dry out.
> >> "
>
> >> Does this mean the fluid that is inside vaporizes ?!?
>
> >> Could this be a health risk to humans ?
>
> >> Bye,
> >> *Skybuck.
>
> > Skybuck,
>
> > Please tell us how old you are.
>
> > Thanks.
>
> > Bob
>
> I was going to say 14, but I just helped a 12 year-old nephew build a
> machine from scratch (over the phone). About the only thing I had to do
> was just critique a few things he was not familiar with, such as USB
> muddaboad pinouts.
>
> As far as health hazards from blowing caps, I'd be dead from the ones
> I've had go off. Tube amp 552 B&H 16mm projectors had a design flaw that
> cause one cap to blow up, and that cap was in front of your nose as you
> * made some mechanical adjustments. Thank ghu the cap was sideways to
> said nose, but the visuals of having a 200uF 150v cap unwind in front of
> your eyes was "interesting". The fish oil smell would linger in the shop
> for hours.

I once had an electrolytic cap explode explode in my bedroom when I
applied 120VAC to it. The smell was just awful - a little like
Bailey's Irish Cream, of all things.

--
Joe

07-30-2008, 10:53 PM

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:48:26 +0200, Skybuck Flying wrote:

> Could this be a health risk to humans ?

If so, then for the last 100 years or so it's been negligible.

If you go blowing up capacitors, you'll probably lose an eye before
you poison yourself.

Don't Try This At Home!

Rich

07-30-2008, 10:56 PM

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:12:03 -0700, nobody > wrote:
>
> As far as health hazards from blowing caps, I'd be dead from the ones I've
> had go off...

When I was in the USAF, we had a pressurized power supply that had blown
a bank or two of selenium rectifiers. When we popped the enclosure and let
the air out, it _SMELLED_ like it could have killed people. We had to let
the room air out for about two hours before anyone could go back in.

Cheers!
Rich

07-31-2008, 04:13 AM

On Jul 31, 4:48*am, "Skybuck Flying" <BloodySh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I asked:
>
> "Which components on a pc motherboard are most likely to fail first because
> of overheat ?".
>
> Somebody answered:
>
> "
> Probably electrolytic caps - they are usually the first to fail; heat
> causes them to dry out.
> "
>
> Does this mean the fluid that is inside vaporizes ?!?
>
> Could this be a health risk to humans ?

Most of fluid inside electrolytic capacitors is water, and almost all
of the fluid that evaporates is water. Enough water can damage human
health, but I don't think that you need to worry - the main additives
(boric acid, sodium borate, and ethylene glycol) aren't noticeably
toxic, and the rest don't seem to kill electronic development
engineers, who blow up electrolytic capacitors pretty regularly -
mostly by under-estimating ripple currents (which can be high if your
circuit goes into oscillation).

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

07-31-2008, 05:29 AM

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:11:51 +1200, Craig Sutton wrote:

> Please chew on some then keep us informed if you get sick.

An electrolytic suppository would be more effective and the twit would
probably enjoy the experiment more.

07-31-2008, 07:48 PM

Ok,

I'll tell a little story as well.

I was in belgium with an old pc which I got for free.

It was supposed to be for one of my family members which happened to live in
belgium at the time.

I had slept little...

The pc wasn't working correctly... probably because the keyboard was still
wet from cleaning it.

Then I thought... maybe they have different voltages in belgium.

So I switch the power from 220 volts to 110 volts with the little red thing
on the back.

Then I turn on the computer..

Poooofff... flash... smoke..... smell, stinky little bit lol.

I probably blew up the power box...

Well it was a good thing too... it was a shitty computer... slow 386 or 486
with windows on it or so... it was really **** slow... later on she bought
some good computers

Bye,
Skybuck.

07-31-2008, 09:08 PM

In article <18900$4890b772$541981a9$ me.nl>,
Skybuck Flying <> wrote:
>>Probably electrolytic caps - they are usually the first to fail; heat
>>causes them to dry out.
>
>Does this mean the fluid that is inside vaporizes ?!?
>Could this be a health risk to humans ?

Your post got a number of responses, but almost all of them were
completely useless... okay, I'm not *surprised*, just a bit
disappointed in Usenet here. Sheesh.

This website talks a bit about how aluminum electrolytics are made
and lists some of the chemicals in the electrolyte:
http://www.elna.co.jp/en/capacitor/alumi/principle.html

You can look up MSDSs or other hazard data on the chemicals to see how
toxic they are. They're mostly not, and many of the ones that are
toxic aren't very toxic --- gamma-butyrolactone, for example, was
sold as a health-food supplement for a while before the FDA pulled it
from the market... the most toxic on the list seems to be tetramethylammonium
hydroxide, which can be harmful if you get it on your skin. Even so, I
suspect you'd have a hard time getting a toxic dose from capacitors ...
maybe if you unrolled a bunch of them and ate the paper layer? Keep in
mind that it's just one component of the electrolyte solution. Wash your
hands after dealing with an exploded capacitor and you'll be fine. Actually
you'll probably be fine anyway. As for normal operation, the amount of
stuff evaporating from a capacitor that *isn't* exploding is so tiny I'm
not even sure how to calculate it.

The answer to "Could X be a health risk?" is almost always "yes". Life
is an exercise in balancing and judging risks, though, and many risks
are far too tiny to be worth worrying about. Walking past a barbecue grill
probably puts more toxic chemicals into you than a lifetime of being
near electrolytics ... not to mention actually eating the grilled food! But
the toxicity is, IMHO, well worth it for the pleasure of eating a good
burger or steak.

--
Wim Lewis <>, Seattle, WA, USA. PGP keyID 27F772C1

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