Testing A Cera-Mite Start-Assist Capacitor

[WC770]

Hello. I have a Carrier heat pump on which the fan (outside unit) is not turning. There is a loud hum coming from the unit. The blades on the fan turn reasonable easy (about a 1/2 revolution with a medium force push). The capacitor tests out as possibly bad. I just have a basic multi-meter to test it with. So, I'm going to order one to replace it.

But, the unit also has a Cera-Mite assist capacitor in it, as shown below. Is there a way to test one of these? Thanks.

 

[Reach4]

Isolate one lead of the capacitor, and short across the leads to discharge in case there is a residual charge.

Hook up an ohmmeter across the 2 terminals. If there is a range switch, select high range ohms/kohms/megohms.. The meter should initially show a low resistance but climb to several megohms or infinity pretty quickly. An analog meter is nice for that, but digital should work too.

There are multimeters now that can actually give you a measurement of the μF. The regular ohmmeter test just checks for gross problems.

 

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[WC770]

Isolate one lead of the capacitor, and short across the leads to discharge in case there is a residual charge.

Hook up an ohmmeter across the 2 terminals. If there is a range switch, select high range ohms/kohms/megohms.. The meter should initially show a low resistance but climb to several megohms or infinity pretty quickly. An analog meter is nice for that, but digital should work too.

There are multimeters now that can actually give you a measurement of the μF. The regular ohmmeter test just checks for gross problems.

OK, I'll give that a try. Thanks for the help.