Typical Tolerance in Capacitors

[Amarbir[CDRLABS]]

Guys ,
i have a large junkyard of these and i plan to sort them out now .Could you please tell me the typical +- tolerance levels of caps .I am doing my maths for 20% .If this ok or there could be more then this also .

[mariushm]

Re: Typical Tolerance in Capacitors

Capacitance value is pointless. You need an ESR meter to determine if the capacitors are worth keeping or not.

Electrolytics usually have 20% tolerance, some old axial capacitors are -20% - +40%, some are worse.

[Amarbir[CDRLABS]]

Re: Typical Tolerance in Capacitors

Capacitance value is pointless. You need an ESR meter to determine if the capacitors are worth keeping or not.

Electrolytics usually have 20% tolerance, some old axial capacitors are -20% - +40%, some are worse.

Sir ,
Well i am typically doing the following

1 : discharging capacitor ,checking on analogue meter for short or open in resistance range

2: discharging it again and testing capacitance using a digital multimeter

3 : discharging again and checking esr with esr meter .

while doing some of these today i noticed that i have a handful of capacitors in the 330 micro farad range ( different voltage rating ) that have value like 200 micro farad to 230 micro farad .Short/Open/ESr Is Fine .My ESr Meter Measurements are as typically this

1 : 330 micro farad 200 volts .07 esr
2 : 330 micro farad 250 volts .06 esr
3 : 330 microfarad 400 volts .08 esr
4 : 330 microfarad 450 volts 0.9 esr

my point is that if the caps are having 200 to 230 value can i use them or shall i throw them .

[c_hegge]

Re: Typical Tolerance in Capacitors

Anything within 20% of the original value is fine. However, 230uF is off by just over 30%, so those are bad and should just be used as firecrackers.

[Amarbir[CDRLABS]]

Re: Typical Tolerance in Capacitors

Anything within 20% of the original value is fine. However, 230uF is off by just over 30%, so those are bad and should just be used as firecrackers.

Hi ,
While Testing 220 Microfarad I Am Getting ESR Of 2.5 in some cases .ESR should be 0.2 to 0.5 approx .My question is can i still use these caps in some projects in capacity and short/open circuit testing is ok

[c_hegge]

Re: Typical Tolerance in Capacitors

ESR should be more like 0.02 or 0.05. Any higher than that and the cap is bad, so toss it a fire and watch it go pop.