Power board capacitors

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KellyP

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#290677 27-Nov-2021 09:35

Hi team,

Does anyone know if power boards use gel capacitors?

We have a power board in a guest bedroom and the guest staying reported hearing a "pop" in the night along with burning smell... they switched off the board at the wall.

I think one of the plugs was loose and it caused it to arc (they moved it to plug in their phone charger). Anyway, upon inspection, I found liquid/gel type sustance on the board which can't be explained and not where the phone charger was plugged in (there was a old Sony alarm clock plugged in there). The board has inspection type screws which I don't have a tool for, so I'm unable to look further.

The powerboard is a HPM one sold at Bunnings and the surge LED is off. It's either dead or the surge fuction has done it's job? RCD was not tripped at the mains....

Mehrts

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#2820173 27-Nov-2021 10:48

How old is the item?

Electrolytic capacitors can bulge & leak the electrolyte over time, or if stressed too much.

Goosey

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#2820176 27-Nov-2021 10:54

Not worth opening it up to see whats gone wrong.

Just replace it....

richms

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#2820195 27-Nov-2021 11:43

At best (worst really) powerstrips will have a MOV in then from live to neutral. Some older ones will still have them between line and earth and neutral and earth too. These are not going to have any liquid in them.

Some that claim to have filtering will have a capacitor too, and it will be a polypropylene film capacitor. - Again, no liquid.

Only time there should be an electrolytic capacitor is if its one with a crappy built in USB charger to it, which will have one on its power supply for the underwhelming USB port, or if its a smart one that needs to run electronics in it. But those are small so lack the volume to be visable if they were to leak. Even a large one in a PC power supply will barely stain the board when they leak. It will be someone spilling something on it that has caused anything to appear to have come out of it.

Richard rich.ms

neb

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#2820362 27-Nov-2021 22:29

James Bond:
Anyway, upon inspection, I found liquid/gel type sustance on the board which can't be explained and not where the phone charger was plugged in

Do you have small children or a cat? About 99.5% of all otherwise unexplainable household occurrences can be traced back to these as a cause.