ESR meter Vs Capacitance meter.

[minnie]

I’m looking for an ESR meter. Of course the ESR (equivalent series resistance) meter is used to check for dry caps. “I’ve used one for a long time.” I’ve done plenty of reading on the net and seeing as a capacitance meter reads the value of the cap, what good is it on detected a dry cap? I have a fluke 175 which reads capacitance, so what is the advantage of getting a capacitance meter? Say like a B&k 830.

[Ray]

Not quite sure of the question, but here's the info;

In general, it is prefered to have an ESR meter rather than a cap meter which is rather useless in the repair field. ESR happense to be a major cause of cap. failures & does not necessarily mean dryness(low to no value measured). You can have a perfect value while the ESR can be way too much causing all sorts of problems. Been using a Sencore unit which has both (ESR + value tester) for 20 plus years & have come across many caps w/good value & too high of an ESR. As a Fyi, ESR is the inability of an electrolytic cap in Chg/Dischg in circuit --similiar as if there was a series resistor inside .

As a rule, the lower the value in Microfarad, the more ESR is to be allowed/expected from electrolytics & vise/versa up to a point (there is an actual chart, but it will get easy to spot after a while). In some applications, such as chopper regulators or Tv H-vert circuits, ESR becomes rather critical

[minnie]

So a cap meter will give you a value but doesn't mean the caps good. 1uf = 1mf but if dry, could be infinite. Or shorted. Parker’s ESR meter has me going. Looking at good or bad is easier than trying to figure out how the resistance scaling of their meter equals a dry cap. Sorry, thinking.

[electrotec]

www.icgrid.net

[minnie]

I went to icgrid, what am I looking for?