"Phil Allison" wrote in message
...

"David Looser"
"Marky P"

Is it possible to test capacitors reliably without a capacitance
meter?

If you want to test capacitors reliably you need an ESR (Effective series
resistance) meter, not a capacitance one.


** That only applies to electrolytic caps -

True, but with modern equipment the vast majority of faulty capacitors are
electrolytics. Of course if he was talking about pre-1960 equipment then
leaky paper capacitors are almost a given.

plus the name is "equivalent series resistance".

Both terms are used. In this context they are equivalent because they
effectively mean the same thing.

Plus an ESR meter will NOT find electro caps that have excessive
leakage, de-polarised or even become short circuit.

Agreed, but these faults are readily apparent with normal testing methods.

Capacitance meters are basically only handy when you have caps with no
markings, ambiguous markings or an unknown colour code.

Agreed.

David.