Make A Water Bottle Capacitor

Do you have loads of water or soda or frizzy bottles everywhere in your house and want to use them for something good?

Well, here is one good use of them, make a High Voltage Water Bottle Capacitor! The bottle capacitor is very similar to the Water Leyden Jar I made a while ago, but the only difference is it uses a bottle, not a jar.

Disclaimer:
The bottle capacitor is a high voltage capacitor, high voltage capacitors are one of the most dangerous things you could ever use in electronics. A large charged bottle capacitor is potentially lethal if you touch its live terminals, and a small charged bottle capacitor can cause injury and it still be lethal in some ways.
So, I am not responsible what ever you do with this information and bottle capacitor.

Step 1: What you will need...

What you will need are:

• A bottle of any kind
• Water
• Salt
• Stainless steel nail
• Aluminum foil (or even better, use AL foil tape if you have any!)
• Tape (you won't need it if you are going to use foil tape

Comments

[ghest1138]

I'm trying to make a mini one out of an aprox. 2*0.5 plastic cylinder w/ one closed end that I got out of a pen. I've filled it w/ salt water, wrapped it with foil, attached the - wire, and to seal the top, I first put electrical tape over it, then I inserted a small nail, then I put clear Gorilla Glue around it to seal it. I was wondering if this would work, and if it did, how much voltage might it put out? Enough to light an LED?

[Jesse Jarrett]

I still think its a neat concept though

[Jesse Jarrett]

This does nothing. I even hooked it up to an AC four wheeler charger.

[bswt]

if you heat the water in a pan then add the salt you could add more

[iTixle]

This extra salt will only stay dissolved when the water is hot. Once the water cools down the solubility of the salt in the water will go down and the salt will precipitate out of solution.

[highvoltagedude]

Hi I built this and it does nothing. Can you help me?

[Blad2011]

how do you do step 11

[hilo890]

how should I charge the leyden jar? I ran it across a tv and it did nothing. I don't have any PVC pipe either.

[SpeedSicks]

use a test light hooked up to the positive terminal of the capacitor. hook the negative up to the negative terminal of your car battery. touch the other end of the test light to the positive of the car battery and hold it there til the test light goes dim. ta da! fully charged!

[Xixfas]

isnt that dangerous?

[pankaj kumar singh]

Hi,
i just joined instructales.com today.
your bottle capacitor is amazing.

[adelkamel]

Dear Plasmana
Thinks for your good idea. I want to ask you about voltage achieved by the cap, if i need a capacitor of 300pF and 10KV, what can i do?
Best regard
Adel Kamel

[coilsinamotor]

could you charge it with a camera charger?

[Betelgeus3]

You could technically charge it with anything, but you only get out the potential of what you put in.

[tanujswain]

can pls summerise the many ways to charge it...

[bshaikh]

can i use normal 1.2 volt battery to charge...........i dnt think it will be dangerous?plz reply.............thnx

[dariel24]

hmm it wont work.. i use 600ml bottle with 20g salt, cover it with aluminum foil and wrap it using black electrical tape.
but for a nail substitute i use the graphite core of a battery. is that my problem?
tested using 3v DC from my home-made Transformer, but it didn't store any electricity

[windstalker1992]

from what ive read a capacitor needs to be grounded while charging , you might want to check the wikipedia page on leyden jars

[ARJOON]

your voltage was too low. this capacitor won't store your charge for more than 3s

[dariel24]

kinda... epic my question took almost 1 year to be replied
thanks by the way, how much voltage should i use? 12?

[ARJOON]

no. maybe a few thousand volts will do.

[maz-zahra]

I have a task. I have to make a capacitor and its size must be 3cm X 3cm X 3cm. Would you like give me any suggestion for the materials that should be use?

[Samuri Squid]

This might be a stupid question, but, how do you charge it?

[hobbid hobbin]

I think they work using static electricity so if you don't have a spare vandergraph generator you could try using a friction rod or a TV screen (anything that builds up static). I think they can also charge themselves if you leave them.

[robot1398]

do we have to make a saturated solution of salt ???

[robot1398]

can i use a very! very! very! small bottle

[Betelgeus3]

I don't know much about the chemical properties of the capacitor, but would a more reactive salt (potassium chloride) increase performance of the cap? I've got some in bags of "IceMelt".

[NetReaper]

could these be used in a coil gun or are they too weak?

[Plasmana]

Unfortunately, those capacitor are too weak...

[tjk94]

What about if you connected several of them? ~also~ How big would you have to make it before it would work for a coil gun?

[Betelgeus3]

The problem with making a coil gun out of these isnt the potential (voltage) it's the speed. There are "fast" and "slow" caps, and bigger ones are generally slower. Fast big ones are pretty expensive, so I imagine this one is big, but slow. Not enough speed to cycle the coils without lingering.

[SpeedSicks]

has anyone used one of these to help buffer the power surges in a car audio setup? i used to have a 1 farad power capacitor in my car, and it worked great for hitting the extra low bass, and stopped my headlights from dimming with the bass also. but they are expensive..this could be cheap, and made right could be safe ? lol

[Betelgeus3]

The problem with the homemade one is that it's not electrolytic, and therefore probably very low tolerance. It would also be very susceptible to temperature, impact, and air pressure. I have no way of knowing, but one bottle alone is probably not 1 farad. A bunch in parallel probably could be, but not just one.

[beehard44]

i dunno if they are safe, but i guess they are way more than 1 farad...

[qwertyboy]

I realize that these comments are old, but I would like to clear some things up. There is a reason that 1 Farad capacitors for audio systems are expensive. Capacitors that hold 1 Farad and above are expensive because that is a huge amount of energy to store. Capacitors are typically rated for MICROfarads, micro meaning one-millionth. Bigger does not always mean better in the world of capacitors. Although these capacitors may be relatively large, these only hold on the order of a few NANOfarads. You would potentially need one BILLION of these in order to add up to one Farad. The capacitor in this Instructable would typically be used for a Tesla coil, or something similar.

[slaserj]

I have 7 of these hooked up to a 30ma NST. They work wonderfully, but the water turns bluish when it is on. I think it may be arcing through the plastic. Is this supposed to happen?

[a_person]

whats the amps on this thing?

[greymatter21]

uhh... im kinda new to capacitors and resistors and technology stuff, so:...what are capacitors used for?
and also how could i charge my capacitor(without getting into big technological terms,etc...)

[mahdir24]

Hey, can u please tell me the voltage rating for this capacitor because i am planning to use it for my tesla coil. u c i need a capacitance of 17.2 nF, so i can connect 10 of these up in pararell with my 9kV NST?? Please post back!!

[skuitarman]

could I use a glass bottle