Capacitor Tester

Q&A about all types of jukeboxes: Wurlitzer, Seeburg, Rock-Ola, AMI, and more.



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rvalkenburg
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Location: Cinnaminson, NJ USA

Capacitor Tester

by rvalkenburg » Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:25 pm

I am looking to buy a new ESR capacitor tester, as my old analog one has finally died, and wondering what everything thinks....

Looking for something with broad range scanning for small capacitors (.001uF and higher). I have looked at getting the Peak Atlas ESR70 but only goes to 1uF.
Ron Valkenburg


Ken Layton
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Location: Olympia, Washington USA

Re: Capacitor Tester

by Ken Layton » Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:06 pm

It all depends on what equipment you will be testing capacitors on. If you do mostly tube type equipment an ESR meter is a waste of money. For tube stuff just use a capacitance value meter which shows the capacitance of the capacitor under test and use a good quality analog ohm meter to look at capacitor leakage.

If you do lots of solid state equipment repairs, especially switching regulator power supplies and monitors, then an ESR meter is a must have piece of test equipment.

I use the CapAnalyzer 88A ESR meter almost daily.

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MattTech
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Location: Philadelphia Pa USA - Home Electronics - Service Technician

Re: Capacitor Tester

by MattTech » Tue Nov 18, 2014 10:54 pm

I agree with Ken's comments.
Older tube equipment - just yank the bad/aged parts out and replace.
Do the usual voltage checks and bias readings, etc.
Then call it a day.
The Internet is a marvelous thing, however it's not a good substitute for actually being there.


Topic author
rvalkenburg
Senior Member
Posts: 144
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 3:53 am
Location: Cinnaminson, NJ USA

Re: Capacitor Tester

by rvalkenburg » Wed Nov 19, 2014 12:01 am

Wel since I have a Seeburg hf100r and a Seeburg 146 Trashcan I agree but I also now have a Seeburg SPS-2 & Seeburg USC-2, along with my multitude of 16 Pinball machines that vary from 1962 to 1983. So I need something with that type of range, going from old to new technology.
Ron Valkenburg

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