I am restoring a 1936 Philips Radio model 37-61 and it has 3 liquid filled capacitors. I know about restuffing can electrolytics that have multiple value in them, but I have never seen liquid filled capacitors before. I removed one and checked the value of it on my Sencore LC-76 tester. It was supposed to be 8mf and it read 8.5mf. My question is do these need to be replace/restuffed or do they not go resistive with age like the paper ones do? It would not be hard to restuff if need be, but if I don’t have to do that I will not. I have one paper capacitor yet to replace if I can figure out how to get to it.
Hi Irishman299,
I suppose you are talking of a Philco 37-61 rather than Philips ? Wikipedia mentions Philco (an acronym for Philadelphia Battery Company) was only acquired by Philips in 1981.
Apparently the capacitors were filled with mostly distilled water, with boric acid and ammonium borate. ? I found this info on the following link, which you may find interesting : http://www.analogdial.com/PhilcoCaps/Philcocaps.html
You are right Philco 37-61, I don’t know where the Philips came from it must have been a brain issue. Thanks for the article, I would not have questioned doing the restuffing if I had not checked the capacitance, but when it was just about right on 8mf, I thought maybe they don’t go bad. I never thought of the water evaporating, but with a rubber seal at the bottom I guess it only makes sense.