My own multimeter gave me a false reading on a compressor start capacitor

I was working on a fridge in a condo downtown last Tuesday, compressor wasn't kicking on. My multimeter said the capacitor was reading fine at 45 microfarads, so I spent an hour checking relays and the overload protector (pulled my hair out). Finally swapped the capacitor anyway just to rule it out, and the compressor fired right up. Turns out my meter's capacitance function is junk below 50 microfarads, which I only learned after calling the manufacturer. Has anyone else run into a meter that lies on smaller capacitor values?

2 comments

2 Comments

umaf445d ago

My buddy’s meter said his AC capacitor was good but it was totally dead.

grant7284d ago

@umaf44 that's exactly what got me. The meter was showing something reasonable so you assume it's right. But with these smaller start caps you need a meter that's actually calibrated for that range. My Fluke 87V reads fine down to like 10uF but the cheapo I grabbed as a backup just totally lies below 50. I bet half the bad caps people chase are actually good and the meters are just garbage reading small values.