Capacitor Damage

[rmaustin]

Im putting together a couple of crossover's for a speaker project Im doing.While soldering a connection next to a capacitor,I let the side of the Iron touch the capacitor housing,It melted an area of about a quarter inch of the outer plastic housing down to it looks like a metal housing.Would anyone have advice on this.I want to make sure that I did not damage this capacitor.I put a small amount of silicone glue over the damaged area.I think it will be fine, I guess I just would like some peace of mind form someone else that builds crossovers and does soldering from time to time.Thanks

[lynnm]

I doubt that your mishap will have had any effect.

The plastic covering on a capacitor is nothing more than the "plastic covering", ( ie. the cover is irrelevant to the performance of the capacitor ).

It is extremely unlikely that you overheated that area of the capacitor for a period sufficient to distort its internal elements so as to cause a short or to distort the foil windings in the cap to the point that the cap's electrical characteristics will have been materially altered.

[Tom Mobley]

I cooked off an Auricap with the side of my iron while trying to get into a tight spot. It just made a little burned spot in the middle of the barrel. Didn't look that bad. I have a fairly decent Fluke meter that reads capacitance, unfortunately it now claims that the cap dosn't have any capacitance. As in zero, zip, nada and all that. You might want to check yours before putting it in a circuit.