Question about capacitor usage

  I ordered what turned out to be poor quality capacitors from...Amazon.
6 of the 12 failed. The failure was increased dissipation and reduced capacitance. These are 20kV capacitors failing at about 4kV.
   If I had read the reviews I would have saw they fail at low voltages. I used the caps in a  tripler, the caps that failed were the  caps that passed all the current flow, not the filter caps on the output. I have returned the first 12.
   I had order a second batch when I only had one defective capacitor, now I'm wondering If using them as filter capacitors on the output is less hard on them, i.e. will the have a longer life as a filter, then when passing all the current.
  
 
                  Mikek

On Monday, 19 June 2023 at 15:32:58 UTC+1, Lamont Cranston wrote:
> I ordered what turned out to be poor quality capacitors from...Amazon. 
> 6 of the 12 failed. The failure was increased dissipation and reduced capacitance. These are 20kV capacitors failing at about 4kV. 
> If I had read the reviews I would have saw they fail at low voltages. I used the caps in a tripler, the caps that failed were the caps that passed all the current flow, not the filter caps on the output. I have returned the first 12. 
> I had order a second batch when I only had one defective capacitor, now I'm wondering If using them as filter capacitors on the output is less hard on them, i.e. will the have a longer life as a filter, then when passing all the current. 
> 
> 
> Mikek

Real 12kV caps should be able to pass testing at well above that. You bought junk suitable for about 2kV. Current is not likely to be the issue.