Capacitor

[BoeingDiesel]

Does anyone have a recommendation for properly disposing of an A/C capacitor? I replaced one on a 4 ton condenser and I don't think it wise to just chuck it in the trash. and risk someone touching the contacts.
thanks

 

[Signal73]

I believe crossing the contact points in all directions with a screwdriver will discharge any stray voltage left. That was mentioned in many videos I saw regarding diagnosing them.

 

[Tuesdak]

Use test leads and clip a two incandescent light bulbs in series across the cap leads. 120v + 120v = 240v so the 120v bulbs don't burn out. This will discharge the cap if it has anything in it. I assume it's a 240v unit: if it's a higher voltage...

 

[BoeingDiesel]

Yes, it's 240V system. I read about some methods on the internet, and for someone, like me who is semi literate on electrical thought I'd better reach out on the TDR. Thanks guys

 

[Topzide]

It should be put with the batteries for recycling since it share similar properties as a dry cell battery. Used to run those type of caps on high power CB rigs to help filter out the noise and the power crush from the amps!

 

[BoeingDiesel]

It will go to a local recycle facility. I was more concerned with assuring it was fully discharged.

 

[SnoKing]

Probably has PCB oil in it! Drain charge as above "carefully", and then install a shorting bus. Take it then to a transfer station that handles disposal of hazardous materials. In the Coast Guard we had dead-man sticks. Heavy lead with alligator clip on one end and a wooden stick with a metal end attached to the other end of the lead. We wore the heavy electrical workers rubber safety groves when doing this. The final amps of the Loran C transmitters had 15,500 volts on the plates and we would blow some two men capacitors from time to time. Two men as it took two of us to lift on up into it's rack above the 4 final water cooled tubes, that pulled 4.5 RF amps at the voltage noted above. I was member of the construction crew that built this station in the summer of 1966. Sattahip was the master with slave stations in Lampang in NW Thailand and Con Son Island of the Southern coast of Vietnam. Later a three slave was added in 1969 at Tan My 34 miles South of the DMZ on the coast of Vietnam. The system monitor was located at Udorn AFB in Northern Thailand close to the Laos border.

Because capacitors can get a charge from outside sources just sitting around in storage, all of our spares had to be handle carefully. The transmitter building was within the umbrella of the Loran C tower, so there was a constant RF field there 24/7. We used the dead-man stick a lot.

I stuck my hand in one the linear 1000w amps under one of the com radios that the chief and I were working on, to move a wire out of his way and had a capacitor discharge across my hand. I had the burn marks showing for a few years. I was lucky the path was not to my feet which were in the floor wiring trench with it's copper ground plate running in the bottom of the duct. His head was half way in the amp and rattled around a bit from the sound of the discharge.

Top right picture shows the 625' tower and the transmitter building. Antenna field was a 1800' circle and that transmitter building was inside of that. The bottom two pictures I took for the top of the tower and half way up. I climbed it hot! We went down for a minute to mount and dis-mount the tower. Later they start mounting the towers hot via a fiberglass ladder. In the bottom left picture a quarter of the way in from the right side you can see one of the 24 load elements had umbrella off the top of the tower.

 

[BoeingDiesel]

Snoking, that's quite an account. One of my uncles was part of a crew that serviced the towers and I remember him saying that you couldn't just grab a hold and start climbing.Electrical...? No thanks

 

[SnoKing]

Snoking, that's quite an account. One of my uncles was part of a crew that serviced the towers and I remember him saying that you couldn't just grab a hold and start climbing.Electrical...? No thanks

This document talks about mounting a hot antenna. The Loran antenna rest on giant insulators at the base.
https://www.loran-history.info/downloads/Bulletin_ServiceBeyond_Oct_10_2010.pdf