It would be nice to find a set of bath tub curves on each kink of old
tantalum. Maybe we'll get enough inof here to sort the good from the bad.
I don't even have a cluse as to how many mfgs there were and how many time
they improved their designs as they experienced failures. Iguess what we
need to know is which one fail themost.
73
hank wd5jfr
"Jim Adney" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:35:51 -0600 "Henry Kolesnik"
wrote:

One thing I forgot to ask is how good are old, burned-in tantalums that
test
good if salvaged for reuse from older equipment. Anyone have any data?

I like the tantalums that come in the metal cylindrical cases with the
glass seals. I've never seen a bad one. Look for them at swap meets
and use them instead of small alum electrolytics as a higher
reliabilty replacement.

I've not had a lot of experience with the teardrop tantalums, but I
have seen a few bad ones.

While you will see aluminum electrolytics in all stages of ageing from
perfectly good to dead short or open, my impression of the teardrop
tantalums is that they are either perfectly good or completely bad.
There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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