Subbing Electrolytic for Film Box Cap

untamedfrontier

Well-known member
So here's my newb question for the day (bonus point for context!):

Can I sub a polarized 470n (or .47u if you're nasty) Electrolytic Cap for a film box one?

The use case is in the Spirit Box, where there are 3 470n caps, of which I only have 1 WIMA 470n, but I have a few Wurth .47u 50v

For my last build I swapped in one of the Film box's in place of polarized electrolytic (Abider, which ironically is the same values), but just wanted to know what the risks were doing it in reverse.

Also, if my nomenclature is wrong, please correct me, I want to learn, dammit!
 
My understanding is that film caps are bypolar so my guess is yeah :). I usually use film caps instead of electro ones if I have the value and if the electro is in the audio signal path ! But then again I must have read this in other forum threads in the past so I might be wrong xD
 
If I read your question correctly you want to put an electrolytic cap in to replace a film cap. You can do this, but you need to know what the DC bias voltage is on both sides of the cap. Applying reverse voltage to a polarized cap is not fun, they like to pop and send paper and electrolyte all over your circuit. Not a fun mess to clean up. I would recommend ordering the correct caps to be safe. And if your a newb like you said I would highly recommend getting the right caps instead of subbing the eletros for the films.
 
If I read your question correctly you want to put an electrolytic cap in to replace a film cap. You can do this, but you need to know what the DC bias voltage is on both sides of the cap. Applying reverse voltage to a polarized cap is not fun, they like to pop and send paper and electrolyte all over your circuit. Not a fun mess to clean up. I would recommend ordering the correct caps to be safe. And if your a newb like you said I would highly recommend getting the right caps instead of subbing the eletros for the films.
Agreed and especially if they're in the audio path, electrolytic s are a necessary evil that I chose to avoid rather looking for places to use/add them
 
Thanks for the responses, that was just what I needed to keep me from doing something dumb :)

Correct caps to be ordered shortly!

Can't promise I'm not going to try breadboarding this at some point though haha
 
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