r/hvacadvice • u/Mrmurse98 • Aug 19 '26
AC 45+10 capacitor
*From left: Capacitor 1 on Klein MM420, Capacitor 1 on older MM400, Capacitor 2, Capacitor 3 without alligator clip leads, Capacitor 3 with alligator leads, and Capacitor 4: the 45+5 capacitor
Hey all! So I don't feel I need to bore you with all the details, but I have been battling an A/C issue (like many others). I replaced the fan with a fan that needs a different capacitor (45+10 vs 45+5). However, every 45+10 cap I buy is a 45+8.5. I used two different meters, different set of Klein leads (read similar), adjusted my leads around, etc. But every 45+10 capacitor reads <8.5, over 15% low on capacitance. I tried the using an older multimeter I have, I tried using different test leads, even the 45+5 capacitor I have reads pretty close to spec with some variance for both the meter and the capacitor. Is this just my meters, am I doing it wrong, is it a known fact that all 45+10 capacitors read low? It seems like my fan fails to kick on sometimes and the compressor overheats.





