"Thank you Kent."
The Fine Things are Always Hand Made
Paul Kasindorf's Discussions
Allwave 15 tar caps? Necessary to change?
Started this discussion. Last reply by Paul Kasindorf Dec 8, 2025. 6 Replies 0 Likes
I have seen various posts on different sites mentioning the these big tar boxes. It seems, from what others more knowledgeable than me say, there is more going on in them than capacitance. Is it…Continue
Paul Kasindorf's Page
Latest Activity
"Those smaller units are just caps, and generally should be replaced. If you rebuild the metal casing, you can easily put modern 600v caps inside. I don't always go to that much trouble though.
Kent "
"There are small shiny rectangular pieces mounted on the underside of the radio. They are marked with MF values, but are they capacitors? They don’t look like anything else I have seen. Do they need replacement like most caps?"
"Hi Paul,
Here is a picture of one of the bathtub caps with the choke in, this is from my allwave fifteen,
once removed from the chassis the back will need to be removed from the bathtub as its soldered on.
Looking from the back of the bathtub, the…"
"Thank you so much for the suggestions and moreover the education. I’ll probably start digging in to it in a couple of weeks. I really appreciate the offer of help… I will surely need it."
"So the metal encased capacitor blocks in the IF circuit, typically mounted on the rear apron, do contain a combined inductance and capacitor. They are used in the cathode circuit, running at much lower voltages then the usual B+ levels. That said, I…"
Allwave 15 tar caps? Necessary to change?
I have seen various posts on different sites mentioning the these big tar boxes. It seems, from what others more knowledgeable than me say, there is more going on in them than capacitance. Is it totally necessary to change these?I have restored mostly 1920s simple sets, and I don’t want to mess up something so valuable and historically important in trying to bring it to life.Thanks for your input.PaulSee More
© 2026 Created by Kent King.
Powered by
