Capacitor leak. Can I fix it?

Technical Questions
1

Hello!

My sense stopped responding a few days ago, and today I went to check on it. It started leaking when I picked it up, which was disconcerting.

Fortunately it hasn’t been raining in my breaker box, but rather it turns out some of the capacitors on the Sense circuit board had had enough.

SenseCapacitorLeakPCB
SenseCapacitorLeakPCB1920×1440 201 KB

Has this happened to anyone else? Seems like a very strange thing to happen to a circuit board that’s not even 5 years old…

Obviously this is far outside of warranty, so is it possible for me to clean this up, replace the capacitors, and carry on?

2

IDK - Electrolytes leaking from these capacitors can be corrosive, especially in the presence of electricity and affect other components and traces on the circuit board. My understanding is that you can clean the residue up with a polar solvent (like water) and an old toothbrush, and replace the perpetrators. But who knows if the system will come back. Usually failures like that come from overstressing the capacitors and possibly overheating. Hasn’t happened to either of my two Sense units.

Which model of Sense monitor do you have ? SM2, SM3 or some other ? It’s printed next to the the serial # on the case.

3

It’s an SM3. Does it make a difference?

4

If it was an earlier model, there might be additional reasons to get a new one instead of trying to repair.

1 Like
5

Quick update - As soon as I took it apart, bits started crumbling off the PCB, fully corroded, so I’m abandoning this. Thanks for the reply though!

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6

Yeah, that’s the issue - electrolytes are corrosive, especially in presence of oscillating electric fields.