John-Del wrote:

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I use (and sell) Bob's ESR meter kit (over 600 sold since 1999). The
only improvement I can suggest is to use a regular fixed range digital
ohm-meter in parallel with the leads to be sure the low reading isn't
actually a shorted component.


** Yes, a rare dead short in a capacitor hides its ESR from any meter PLUS caps wired in parallel have a "team ESR" that can hide bad member.



Years ago I bought a portable ESR tester for my truck for working on PTVs
and arcade monitors on site:

http://www.drviragopete.com/resources/Eds88Aom.pdf

This meter will pick up a shorted cap or shunt circuit and display it
as low DC resistance and not ESR.



** Obviously, a shorted cap does not hide from an ohm meter, but will defy any meter trying to read its ESR.

Bob Parker's meter WILL read the ESR of caps in parallel with an inductor or transformer winding - not uncommon in SMPS and loudspeaker x-overs.



..... Phil