How do I check if my capacitor is working?

[604Bronco 10+ year member]

its a .5 farad monster capacitor

Power is BATT--->CAP--->AMP

cap and amp are Seperately grounded.. I can take the cap ground off and my amp still works, which makes sense I guess.

The reason I wanted to check is because I was crimping my connections and the gold connector for ground spun around in a weird freakish occurance and touched the power side connector and sparked on my capacitor. All my stuff still works but I have no idea how I can tell if my CAP itself works because there is no light or anything and when I take the ground off for it the music still plays.. thanks!

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[SAG3 5,000+ posts]

you can plug it into the wall with a cap to wall converter

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Caps don't work.

nG

 

[604Bronco 10+ year member]

I got it for half price and only because my lights were dimming when I pumped the bass, im not expecting miracles. but if your telling me they dont work can you elaborate a little?

 

[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

Search the forum for "The Big 3" and do that

/thread

 

[kuijo 10+ year member]

Touch the two terminals.

 

[604Bronco 10+ year member]

Touch the two terminals.

As I stated in my post I already did this by accident and they sparked, I guess that means its working then and not a bad thing?

 

[604Bronco 10+ year member]

wow this is painful, how about answering my question.. at no point did I ask if it was worth buying or how useful it is. I just want to know if its ON, my system pounds tight and clean so I dont really care either way im just curious

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

If you really want proof that it works then use a DMM on it. You have to disconnect it from the battery or you'll only be measuring the battery's voltage. If you get 12-16 volts I'd say you're good to go.

In case you haven't noticed the subject of capacitors is one of the big forum boners. Most on here don't think they have a purpose and a few think there is. I had slight dimming on HEAVY bass hits when I had my system cranked so I put a couple 1 farad capacitors (one on each sub amp) and the dimming went away. Would a new hi-amp alternator been the better way to fix this?......uhhhh YES it would. But in MY particular case the caps were MUCH cheaper than a NEW alternator and they actually did the job. But in most cases they don't help much.

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

Checking with a DMM will show you the capacitor holds a charge (and can output x amount of volts,) but it won't really show you how much *** the capacitor really has.

For instance, a nearly-dead AA battery will read 1.5 volts; So will a brand new one.

The reason they say capacitors "don't work," is because they increase the overall resistance of the circuit, and your alternator works just as hard charging the capacitor as it does your battery; Leaving all three in a less than optimal configuration. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif