RE: MOV failure

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Paul Kidwell by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tmb-at-ieee-dot-org>

Original poster: "Jason by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>
>
>Hi all,
>
>Just finished my 'Terry Filter', and I was wondering what the failure state
>of a MOV is...

<snip>


Well,... One time I was putting a set of three MOVs on an AC line and
our crib lady accidentally gave me one rated for 18VAC. (later, she said
that they *looked* the same) The resulting explosion was loud enough to
bring most of my fellow employees running to my office to see what I had
done to myself.

They found me sitting stock still, frozen in the position I was in when
it went off. I was going through my mental disaster checklist (Thinking,
so I'm still alive... Seeing so I'm not blind. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
fingers... No visible signs of blood... Pain hasn't landed yet....
must be OK ;)

The MOV, on the other hand, wasn't doing so well. The oxide layer vaporized
and blown the 2 contact disks apart from each other. The leads, red casing
and contact disks were still intact.

Paul