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Regenerating LICs - manufacurer's opinion (do not)

JWx

Hello!

For clarity I have asked manufacturer's support if there is something than end user can do to restore hybrid capacitors that have arrived short-curcuited and they stated that "altrough there may be methods to regenerate them, it is typically not advisable to do it for commercial or safety reasons" and risk of failure or reduced performance can be high and it is usually safer and more reliable to replace them.

So I understand that the case is not hopeless but the manufacturer is not advising it for serious use cases

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  • in reply to dougw

    mine didn't blow up after charging Slight smile has measured their capacity so his capacitors didn't blow up either... fortunately we have more than one capacitor of each type so we can plan more different test cases

  • in reply to JWx

    Mine also did not burned. Under "regeneration" term I understand recovery of parameters. I think they will work well after recharging to the working range, but have reduced capacity and increased ESR.

  • in reply to dougw

    A case of "kids!" do not try this at home...

    www.youtube.com/watch

  • in reply to JWx

    I think one has to be quite careful and I can completely understand why the manufacturer would not recommend this.

    Mistreated LICs would likely suffer some permanent capacity loss and increased ESR, but this points to a microscopic structural change in the internal layers of the capacitor. Such changes, while they may not promote immediate failure, could be areas of increased stress. This may lead to latent failures in the field in the future, reduced lifetime (hours and cycles), potential sites for accelerated electrolyte degradation, potentially increased leakage and perhaps even reduced surge voltage tolerance. There is also the issue of whether this happens once-off or repeatedly - as the effects may also compound over multiple over-discharges.

    I suspect it is perhaps something not so well studied, or the outcomes too variable and hard to control, so it's safer to err on the side of caution (especially if you are the company) and avoid customers using such parts at all.

    Taking the parallel with more "dangerous" Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) which have been over-discharged, you will find quite a few R-C hobbyists claiming to have "revived" such cells back to life. I've even done it on occasion just to learn - usually, deeply discharged cells lose half their capacity in my experience. But they come with drastic risks, especially when they have been over-discharged for too long, as internal copper dendrites may develop and separator damage may lead to increased probability of a thermal runaway (vent-with-flame) event some time in the future due to an internal short. As a result, it's not worth the risk of burning down one's abode simply for a $5 lithium-ion battery, but there are probably quite a few people who have "revived" such cells and gotten away with it (for now).

    Thankfully, the construction of LICs means that such level of failure is rather unlikely. The sources I've read claim thermal runaway is not a possibility and the limited energy storage compared to LIBs means that the consequences are limited. But I would not consider the previously shorted LICs to be valid representatives for LICs in general ...

    - Gough

  • in reply to Gough Lui

    I'm not sure if the packaging shown in this YouTube video (channel: GreatScott) came from the distributor or from the manufacturer, but it looks to do the right job of protecting the capacitor:

    youtu.be/XlON0Uj2Zk0

  • in reply to BigG

    Pity about the other capacitor though Open mouth

    image