Capacitance Measurements

[tieny]

I recently just bought the peak atlas ESR70 meter.

When a capacitor starts to go bad, does the capacitance usually measure higher than the specs? I measured a variety of capacitors and all measure usually a bit under the spec.
However some I actually measured higher than the spec. would that mean its beginning to be bad?
I measured a budging 470uf and got an esr reading of 0.3 ohms but a capacitance reading of 680uf.

Usually when a capacitor goes bad the ESR increases greatly.

Also when would it be considered a bad capacitor, like what percent would the capacitance be off from relative to the factory specs?

[multimeter]

Re: Capacitance Measurements

capacitance will usually go higher,normally the measurement should be +-20%,make sure also you use the probe compensation to make sure its calibrated on the esr70.

0.3 esr is a good value for that cap,but still the cap could be out of tolerance.

i have this meter and has never let me down.