How To Test Capacitor

There is a high percentage that the capacitor are the culprit in most electronics equipment that malfunction aside from IC, diode,fet and transistor,scr and resistor. That's why it is important to know how to test the capacitor accurately, because majority of electronic components in one equipment mostly composed of capacitors. There is 3 ways to test capacitor. First by using analog meter by which is not good option because you can  found only a bad capacitor like a electrolytic when it is to old in the circuit and it already shorted, open and sometimes leaky but it has a low percentage when you use this method to find a bad capacitor and this method is time consuming. Second by using capacitance meter which is more comfortable when you compare to by using analog tester. The capacitance meter test the value of capacitor which is in microfarad(uf) if it is electrolytic capacitor and picofarad (pf), nanofarad(nf) if it is a non polar capacitor like mylar, metallised capacitor and other non polar capacitor. This tester gives you what the value if it is with in a range of what is written in the body of capacitor.If it is ok or not.By using the capacitance meter you can check the capacitor even it is in the circuit but mostly the best to check is out of circuit. Third is by using the more advanced tester which is ESR METER which measure the series resistor inside the capacitor if it is increasing or out of range. By using some branded esr meter like Blue Esr METER and other brand. Fourth is by using your  eyes or visual inspections if the capacitor is bulged  or it has some leaked in its pins  it is recommended to replaced if you found such characteristic in a capacitor.While  on a non polar you can test it thru its capacitance value and esr if its .1 uf and up if convert it to microfarad otherwise than that you cannot measure its esr  if  is below .1 microfarad. You may observe also its body near its legs if it is start to decayed or pulverised some parts of it from the pins or legs of it.Be sure to replaced that kind of visual cased of a nonpolar capacitor.