Small glass capacitors polarized?

Chuck Guzis cclist at sydex.com
Sun Sep 27 14:15:20 CDT 2015


On 09/27/2015 11:03 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> Hey, everyone: those little glass capacitors (well, the casing is
> glass - I'm not sure what's inside) that one often sees used as
> per-chip noise/spike supression caps (often 0.01 uF or some such
> size) on 1970s/1980s vintage boards: are those things polarized, or
> can I put them in either way around?

Are you certain that the encapsulation is glass and not resin?  I've got 
a tub full of those paper-and-oil caps encapsulated in clear (like 
water) resin, ranging in value from 100 pf to about 2.2 uF.

I know that some old Sprague "Vitamin Q" steel-jacketed caps were sealed 
with what looks like glass, but again, I suspect that it's just resin. 
(BTW, when those things go, it's explosive with the added shrapnel of 
the jacket.  Nasty).

--Chuck



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