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John Rumm John Rumm is offline
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Default Domestic water pump sometimes "sticks" on starting - new capacitorneeded or what?

lardconcepts wrote:

So, there it all is! Do capacitors fade over time? Anyway of testing


They can...

with yer standard £5 Maplin yellow multimeter?


A non exact test is to use an ohms range - when you probe the cap out of
circuit (make sure its discharged first) you should see a reading that
starts low and then rapidly rises, swap the leads round and it should
repeat. Much more satisfying on an analogue meter it has to be said. It
won't give you a reading of the actual capacitance some posh analogue
meters can do that for small caps, or a LCR meter is needed for larger
ones), but it will give you an indication that it is at least
functioning - and you can compare the behaviour against a known good one.

--
Cheers,

John.

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