On Oct 30, 11:03*pm, Peter Parry wrote:
On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:37:35 -0700 (PDT), NT
wrote:



Suicidal advice

You do realise the capacitor has a drain resistor I presume?

people also wrote:

Drain resistances do fail!

They do, extraordinarily infrequently. Unstressed resistors are the
most reliable component after a length of wire.

Using the MIL-HDBK-217F model for a composition resistor at its
rated power (drain resistors actually operate below this) you are
going to see a failure rate of about 200 failures per 10^9 hours
operation. That is as close to zero as makes no difference.

For someone looking at a microwave once or twice in a lifetime the
chances of encountering a failed drain resistor on an oven which
powers up are minimal, far less than the risk of being killed driving
to buy another one. Leaving it off for 24 hours will in any case
allow the capacitor to self discharge through internal leakage and
other components.

If I relied on this dense advice I'd be long dead.

1. discharge resistors do fail
2. components without such resistors get substituted during mfr now
and then
3. ditto during repair
4. there are at times individuals involved in all stages of manufature
and repair who couldnt care less about safety resistors


NT