RE: Capacitors

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>

I whole-heartedly agree that there is an awful lot of utter garbage being
sold on ebay suggesting that it's suitable for "Tesla", notably Glassmike
caps and multi-microfarad sized caps.  If you're not sure is an ebay cap is
suitable for use in a coil, ask the list (and it probably won't be :-(.
And don't get me started on the "Nikola Tesla Purple Positive Energy
Angel"!  Shame on those sellers!  

But I'm not sure I share your concern for Maxwell caps.  I am well aware of
the rated life expectancy issues with Maxwell's (or any other cap), but as
a practical matter, how many times have we heard of a Maxwell expiring in
actual Tesla service?  I have not.

Gary Lau
MA, USA

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Friday, January 25, 2002 10:15 AM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Re: Capacitors

Original poster: "Steve White by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<slwhite-at-zeus.ia-dot-net>

Many things for sale hang the words "tesla coil" onto them, especially on
E-Bay. Do careful investigation to avoid wasting money. I see a lot of pulse
discharge caps on E-Bay which are unsuitable for tesla coil service. A lot
of the Maxwells that I see on E-Bay are models that have a very low pulse
discharge cycle life. If the cap only has a discharge cycle life of 100,000
cycles it will only last about 500 seconds of total run time when used with
a RSG at a break rate of 240 PPS. And that is only if the cap is new. They
are almost always used with unknown service life remaining. There are some
good deals out there but you must know what you are buying.

Steve: Coiling in Iowa