[Vivtek]

If the spark literally jumps across between the leads of the resistor before the capacitor charges fully, it is bad design, and not a standard feature.

Once I insulated around it so it could do what it was supposed to do, the zapper worked perfectly, and still works perfectly.

[Vivtek]

It was pretty cool in its broken state, too, with a rhythmic spark occurring inside the handle (which houses the electronics). But I wanted to kill mosquitoes. Our house in Ponce was built for air conditioning - without power it was miserable, as the air circulation through the small windows was effectively nil. We were forced to keep all the doors open to survive.

That first day I killed over forty mosquitoes. Under the dining room table it was just bzzt-zzt-zzt-ztt. Seriously one of the more satisfying episodes of my life.