Heat Shrink Tubing on Capacitors

[jdduffield]

Is it ok to use heat shrink tubing on electrolytic capacitors or do they need to breathe? Like, does heat need to be able to escape off of the top of them or something? The reasoning for it could range from a preferred look to avoiding a short when bent and touching the underside of the circuit board.

 

[Nostradoomus]

it's fine

 

[GAStan]

Many of the labels on these are actually heat shrink. I agree with what @Nostradoomus just posted.

 

[darwin999]

I largely agree with the 2 comments above, but my one concern would be for power supply caps. In principle if there's a lot of ac current running through it (e.g., from a noisy power supply) and the ESR is appreciable, then the cap can get warm - and then the heat shrink could elevate it's temperature and thus shorten its lifetime.

As a test beforehand, you could always run the circuit for a while, and then just touch the cap to see if it's warm or hot. If it's cool, then you're good to go.