"Phil Allison" wrote in message
...

Mr Sandman wrote:


I have an aircon unit that failed. Fault code 'PU' says the capacitor
charging circuit failed, this is confirmed by checking the voltage at the
three large electrolytic caps which show 43vdc, but oddly 85v ac. The
expected voltage at the capacitors should be 180-380vac.


** Gobbledgook.

Large electros acquire *DC voltage* after being charged.

What sort of multimeter / voltmeter are you using ??

An old moving coil one by any chance - many of the latter read double
voltage on the AC ranges compared to the DC ranges if mistakenly used for
DC.

Reverse the probes and the reading drops to zero.

---------

I am using a digital multimeter, a fairly decent one. Probing the caps
directly i get the voltages i mentioned. is this showing ripple indication a
bad capacitor rather than a bad charging component? the caps show no signs
of leakage or expansion externally.

thanks for the help, sorry im a newbie, and dyslexic so may sound muddled.

cheers

steve