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Old 04-11-2014, 09:08 AM
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M3-SRT8 M3-SRT8 is offline
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Who Makes A Good, Modern Capacitor Tester?

Of your gentleman's learned opinion, who makes a good, or even great, modern capacitor tester? Testing for capacitance, leakage, etc.

I want to be able to test all the caps that normally reside inside a vintage television set. You know: electrolytics, tubulars, micas, ceramics, discs, etc, even doorknobs.

In terms of pricing, I'm thinking all levels: cost no object, best bang for the buck, best full-featured moderate price, etc.

Thank You.
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Old 04-11-2014, 01:58 PM
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Lee,

For out of circuit testing:

Sencore LC-53

or

Sencore LC-75

Tests any cap from small micas (10pf) to large electrolytics (200,000uF)
Can also do inductors
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Old 04-11-2014, 02:09 PM
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No modern tester can do leakage tests anywhere near operating voltage for caps in tube sets (which is what you need for an accurate leakage test).

Your best bet is to get a Heathkit C-3 or another vintage tuning eye type cap checker.
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Old 04-11-2014, 05:02 PM
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The Sencore LC series mentioned above are fairly modern and will go up to around 500 volts but they're not cheap. As for door knob caps, you need some sort of specialized high voltage tester. I wouldn't worry about them though - I've never encountered a bad one.
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Old 04-11-2014, 06:23 PM
Olorin67 Olorin67 is offline
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Vintage is the way to go if your working in tube stuff, you need to test them at high voltage. The heathkit c2 and c3 are good, and the later it-11 and it-28 are even better. Like any vintage gear, they will probably need new caps too, but they are pretty simple devices and you can find manuals online. EICO, knight, and many other companies made testers that are almost identical. Also nice to have a modern digital Multimeter to double check values.
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Old 04-11-2014, 06:42 PM
bob91343 bob91343 is offline
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The difficulty arises when you want one instrument to test all capacitors. You measure capacitance, leakage, ESR, self resonant frequency, voltage and temperature coefficient to name the more important ones.

Of course, measuring 'enough' to determine suitability in a television receiver is another thing. Certainly capacitance tolerance is generally unimportant, so you don't need a precision bridge. Even leakage is usually of no consequence except perhaps as a warning of impending failure.

The high voltage units are probably not worth testing as regards their voltage breakdown, as they are usually either good or bad in that respect.

I have a few devices I use. The main one is the GR 1658 Digibridge, a very accurate unit that measures capacitance, inductance, and resistance (including ESR) at two frequencies. But no stress testing. I also have a GR 1650A analog unit that is nice because it will measure resistors at DC, which the Digibridge won't.

I have another GR unit, a megohm bridge, that will test components up to 1000 V DC and measures very high resistances.

My answer to your question is that I have no answer. We need to understand why we are doing this, and obtain appropriate instrumentation to realize the testing we desire.
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Old 04-12-2014, 05:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bandersen View Post
As for door knob caps, you need some sort of specialized high voltage tester. I wouldn't worry about them though - I've never encountered a bad one.
Yeah, I know doorknobs are pretty immortal. The only reason I bring them up is I have 4 of them in a National TV-7W, (500pF 10kV) and the only problem with the TV is insufficient High Voltage, in spite of replacing just about everything in, under, and around the HV circuits. The 1B3-GT and the 12AU7 test fine. I figure they're all that's left.

The HeathKit IT-28 looks like one hell of a bang for the buck.
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Old 04-12-2014, 08:57 PM
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The Sprague Telohmike TO-6 and Pyramid CRA-1 are pretty sweet too. Both have a meter in addition to the eye tube.
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Old 04-26-2014, 08:00 AM
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The Eico 950 (mine was a kit) with 6U5 "tuning eye" lacks the meter but will supply up to 500 volts for leakage tests.
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