# How to Check Capacitor’s Condition in Home Air Conditioner



## Ingram's water & Air

*Manual check:*

1.	Make Sure to switch off all the power sources.
2.	Disconnect the electrical wires using needle nose pliers from the terminals. Make sure to note the respective color of the wires with the respective terminals.
3.	Unplug the capacitor from the mounted location, and look for any oil leaking with the capacitor or swelled of oil. If you found oil leakage then the capacitor is device is bad, and you should consider replacing your capacitor. 

*Checking with Ohm Meter:*
If there is no oil swelling or leak, the next step to check for any internal damage of the capacitor. 
1.	Place the capacitor in a flat surface with the terminals facing upwards. 
2.	Disconnect all the power sources from the terminals using a screwdriver. Make sure to use insulated screwdriver while using it on power sources. 
3.	Set the position into “Rx1 ohm” using Ohmmeter’s dial. Connect the “com” connecter with the black lead and ohm connecter with the Red lead. Touch the metal ends of the leads together and check the reading whether it is pointing to 0 Ohms. 
4.	Touch each terminal with one leads and watch the ohm meter’s reading. If the needle moves slowly to 0 ohms into right direction and then to infinity ohms to the left direction, there is no issues with the capacitor. If the Needle doesn’t move to any of the direction then the capacitor has internal breakup. If the needle moves to 0 ohms and remains, the capacitor is bad and has internal short.


----------



## Acrepairexpertsmiami

I would also recommend "shorting" the capacitor terminals after disconnecting the power and wiring as they hold powerful charges even wihtout incoming supply voltages present.


----------



## johncanady

Because of a long time the efficiency and capacitance of capacitor it can be decrease. So we have to check it time to time. First you have to discharge the capacitor after verifying that power is switch off.
If oil has leaked out then don’t touch that oil. It can be harmful because of PCB oil. 
One’s capacitor is discharged than you can test it with the multi meter. Set your meter to ohm. You will observe that resistance before indicate over leads. Disconnect the leads and switch over the volt, now we have to connect the test leads again. Voltage reading should be observe when approaching zero
If the capacitor don’t hold zero then resistance reading never go on infinite.
On the other hand capacitor can be defective.


----------



## Tony2218

When they say discharge, they are saying that a capacitor can carry over 370 volts an knock you on your buttux. After removing the wires and carefully removing the capacitor, take an insulated screw driver or needle nose pliers and short the capacitor by crossing the leads on each side. This will not damage the capacitor. You can then take the capacitor to any HVAC supply house and they should be able to test and replace if necessary.


----------



## Bobelectric

Yes, those 480 volt capacitors give a good snap to you.


----------



## Acrepairexpertsmiami

you aint kidding. them things are nuts with a charge. be cafeful not to be careless!


----------



## hvaclounge.com

Very informative. Thanks for the tips!


----------

