Capacitors can "arc"? What does this mean?

[31337hxr 10+ year member]

What does it mean when a capacitor arcs? So then how do you prevent arcing? I just spent 68 bux buying a digital 1 farad cap from PowerAmper and I am not gonna pay somebody to install it. So i will do it myself since I have the ground and power wire.

but someone told me to watch out for arcing. what is arcing?

someone plz explain thanks!

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[natem33 10+ year member]

Although I don't know for sure, I believe the 'arcing' is when there is an electrical jump between the two metal posts on the top of the capacitor. The only way that I can see this happening is if you touch a screw driver or wrench to both the positive and negative posts while the cap is charged.

 

[chris229 10+ year member]

Arcing is when you just connect the cap to the power wires without a resistor or test light [something to add resistance] A CAP is a dead short when not charged. I can make huge sparks when you touch the wire to the poll. If your not worried about sparks then disconnect the NEG wire on the battery and wire your CAP the connect the NEG back to the battery so it sparks on the CHEAP battery posts and not the gold CAP posts. Another note is that digital CAPs kill the effectiveness of what a cap does by raising ESL/ESR

 

[F16Fxer4real 10+ year member]

will happen if the cap is charged and you touch it to any ground AND the positive side of the cap. Such as with a screwdriver or the car body or chassis itself. It can and sometime will "weld" itself to whatever metal it touches. Easiest way is to mount it first, charge it with a test light or resistor, then make all yoru connections.

 

[31337hxr 10+ year member]

okay i have no clue what you guys are saying. But anways, I ordered the PowerAmper X-Power digital capacitor and it has a LED reader on top.

So do I first, disconnect the negative battery terminal on the battery.........disconnect the +12 volt powre cable of the amplifier and wire it to my capacitor, then wire another power wire into the amp...then connect the ground of the capacitor into the ground of the car? then reconnect the battery's negative wire......and start the car.

would this work?

 

[chris229 10+ year member]

ARCing is A spark like when you ground a positive battery wire. yes that will work but the last ground on the battery might ARC thats all.