Re-Forming Electrolytics

[Rinkie & Ron Pollack]

There has been quite a bit of discussion on reforming electrolytics with a
variac, milliammeter,  transformer, and rectifier.

I have a couple of old Heathkit Capacitor Checkers which work quite well.
In addition to the bridge circuit for checking capacitance, they have a
feature for checking leakage using variable voltage up to 600V (I think).
It is current limited using a resistor, and a "magic eye" tube to indicate
leakage.  I've found that old electrolytics initially show leakage,  but
often show no leakage after a few minutes at a lower voltage, the eye opens,
indicating no leakage.  By increasing voltage incrementally, many times the
cap will show no leakage after a few minutes.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as reforming the capacitor.  I'm not much of
a technical guy;  does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Ron K2RP

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