How to Test Starter Capacitors

Video Transcript

"How to test a starter capacitor. A starter capacitor is used to start motors. It gives a motor a large initial voltage that's required to get it spinning. If a starter capacitor fails, then when you turn on a motor, you'll just, it'll just sit there humming because it doesn't have enough voltage to, to start up. If you want to test a start capacitor, the easiest way to do it is with a multi-meter like I have here. The thing to bear in mind, with any capacitor, is that it is a potentially dangerous device. They store and release electricity very quickly and if you're not careful, you can get a nasty spark or electrocution, so always use care when working with capacitors. This is a typical capacitor. It's a little bit smaller than some of your starter capacitors, but they all function basically the same. In order to test a capacitor, you want to put your multi-meter into resistance mode ohms, and you want to make sure that it's fully de, discharged by drawing the power off of it. Once it's discharged, you hook up your negative lead to the negative side of the capacitor, and your positive lead to the positive side and what you will see is that the resistance will increase as the capacitor slowly takes a charge from the test voltage coming from the meter. If you see this resistance increase, then that means that the capacitor is functional. If you see infinite resistance or just a static resistance even though the capacitor had been fully discharged, then there's a good sig, a good indicator that that capacitor has a problem and should be replaced."