Is there an affordable digital multimeter with the ability to test capacitors? Something under a $100? Or, maybe a stand alone capacitor tester under a hundred bucks?

Capacitance test ranges are common on cheap multimeters nowadays. You shouldn't have a problem finding one in the sub-$100 price range.

The problem is that DMM capacitance testers (even on better grade multimeters) are fairly worthless for testing the capacitors found in vintage gear. They only apply a few volts to the cap, which may not identify leakage in capacitors that normally see hundreds or thousands of volts. Typical DMMs wont find high ESR, either, a common failure mode in electrolytic caps.

If you are working on vintage gear, you would be better served with a vintage capacitor tester, like a Sprague Tel-O-Mike or similar.

Capacitance test ranges are common on cheap multimeters nowadays. You shouldn't have a problem finding one in the sub-$100 price range.

The problem is that DMM capacitance testers (even on better grade multimeters) are fairly worthless for testing the capacitors found in vintage gear. They only apply a few volts to the cap, which may not identify leakage in capacitors that normally see hundreds or thousands of volts. Typical DMMs wont find high ESR, either, a common failure mode in electrolytic caps.

If you are working on vintage gear, you would be better served with a vintage capacitor tester, like a Sprague Tel-O-Mike or similar.

Agreed - get yourself a vintage tester, or one of the newer ESR testers. Either way, much better than a value only tester.

Cheers,

Yeah, all my projects seem to be vintage/older equipment. I'll see what kind of old school cap testers are available. I already have digital and analog multimeters, so no need for one of them anyway. Thanks N2 and FK.

I use my DMM to test for leakage all the time. Sometimes I use the power supply of the set I'm working on, sometimes my own DC power supply. The capacitance test function is mostly useful for confirming the value of a new capacitor that I pulled out of the capacitor stock. Sometimes they are hard to read the numbers.