Measure capacitance on HVAC capacitor

Hi all. Recently my HVAC went belly up and I kinda figured it was the capacitor (I replaced it about 6 years ago). So I removed it and checked the terminals. There are 3 labeled: 1. "C" - common, 2. "Fan", and 3. "Herm". The name plate of the bad cap was 40MF(MICROFARAD) +/- 7.5. The readings on all three terminals was ZERO. Ok. So I get a new cap at the appliance store, with same specs, I tested all three terms and guess what? It reads ZERO across all three terms! I installed the new cap and everything is working fine, but I'm wondering if I'm using the CAPACITOR function wrong with my meter? I tried ALL the settings.

I'm pretty sure it's operator error, but I'd like to know for future...

What is the maximum capacitor range on the meter?
What is the meter?

1. 20μF - 2000pF.
2. The meter itself is a generic one from China. I got it about 10 years ago and still works fine.

deep_logic said:

1. 20μF - 2000pF.

Click to expand...

Well you're trying to measure one twice as high as it goes - so it's not likely to work.

You could series a known good cap <10 uf and do the math: 1/Ct=1/Ctest+1/Cknown

Series caps obey parallel resistance rules.