You are almost correct. It’s almost universal. Saw one last night that had four connectors on each. I was teaching my assistant and had just told him earlier in the day that common has four, herm will have three or two, and fan will have two or one - and there it was: four on each and totally rusted over.

omg, that sound effect is so satisfying!

There is no "always" in HVAC or anything else. As others have pointed out, some capacitors have 4 on every terminal, some have different numbers on certain terminals than described here. It's a rule of thumb but it's not 100 percent.

I just spent hours trying to find anyone to tell me this information online. Thank you thank you so much for showing us this basic capacitor Clues

I been doing hvac 4 years and didn’t know this! 👍🏽

Much gratitude!

Great, simple video. No fluff. Thanks

Thank you!! I looked and got different colors same place... You're awesome

Good to know Thanks for sharing 👍

Awesome!!! Thanks for making this video my capacitor 12 years old and I couldn't read one thing on that capacitor. My first time changing it out so this helps so much

There are some with 4 terminal on all 3

Learned this on another video but Very helpful: 4-3-2(or 1) = Common- Herm-Fan

The best and professional way is read your wiring diagrams and no cutting corners

Cool. I actually figured this out after taking capacitance measurements. Ordered a new 30+3 dual start run capacitor for 16 bucks (Fan capacitor reads 4.7uF).

This is awesome info, could have used this yesterday. but now I know for the future

Thank you for the coaching!

Not always! I just changed on out yesterday. Common had three, herm had two, fan had one.

And if all three terminals do have 4 connections, the terminal that is wired directly to the contactor is always going to be the common. Then from there trace your other two wires down. One will go to the fan and one will go to the compressor. Easy pezzie.

Learn something new all the time. Thx.

Awesome job thank you so much

Thank you so much!

Thanks

I had a great Uncle Herm....he was a giant guy and farmed never using tractor on his large farm....raised and butchered hogs...beef, cows milk, butter, cheese.... massive crops, orchard etc.Cursed every breath but was a great man....I never could hear the cursing.... Only the knowledge he had...He was a blacksmith, carpenter, tack and saddles,shoded all the Belgium, horse,,, kept up all the wagon equipment etc...

Maybe general rule but I just bought one and it was 4x4x1 for terminal tabs.

Thank you, this helped me out tonight, God bless you 🙏

THANK YOU FOR THE SIMPLE INFO VIDEO!

Thank you this video helped me!

I thought this was almost always the case as well until like a few days ago. All 3 had 4 terminals.

thanks for sharing for knowledge

Thanks 4 posting!💫

Keep the good stuff and tricks of the trade coming, bhrada. 🤙👍😎

From what I’ve found the fan terminal is generally brown, I remember that wire goes to the fan terminal because shit hits the fan lol😂

…. Really wish KZfaq woulda shown me this yesterday while I was replacing mine.. 😂

how to use as a battery for say making a electric fence to protect bees from bears-just one shock should do the trick-what terminals to hook the hot wire and den the ground or common to charge the capacitor

Amazing video

Awesome 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

Thank you for making this video. It really helped me out. My old capacitor had no markings on it.

Thats Great! Thankyou!!

I wonder if that also goes for the resistivity of the coils? Like how the resistivity of common to run + common to start = run to start.

Yes. I knew this. It's not always the case but in most cases yes. But...if you're able to read a wiring diagram there's other methods to figure out which is which if you can't read it on the cap and it's not this type of cap.

Wow, thank you so much. I never knew that.

Just replace the capacitors on my condenser. 4 terminals each. Herm, fan & common. careful when somebody says standard across-the-board there’s always exceptions. Look it up for yourself. My capacitor is a GE genteq 97F9042

Thank you.

Im holding the one i just replaced as a home owner not in hvac at all. All three have 4 prongs. One is white the other 2 are black. No other indicators at all.

Thank you

Use AmRad run capacitors. They're color coded and superior in every way.

Thank you sir

Great info!! Is this the start or run capacitor?

Now that you taught us how to identify which terminal is which... what's the trick/standard for knowing which color wire goes to those terminals??

It’s easier for me to learn things with a system that makes sense. 1,2 - Fan. 3 Herm. 4 is C. That becomes F, H , C. You can make up a mnemonic or cute little ditty if you want till you get some experience with it.

That startup intro gets to my OCD 😂! Investing in slow starts like Micro Aire is a good thing. Great tips on the capacitor though 👍.

Good thanks

I came across one yesterday that had 3 tabs for my common and Herm had to look at the schematic to verify

Some commons have 3

Is cpt and common the same. I got a new one that doesn't have the same connections as the original. A man from a HVAC store gave me it

What about if have two terminals capacitor and each terminal has 4 connectors. Thanks

Very cool. Except the one I’m trying to replace on a rv AC unit has the three terminals but each one has four prongs. The writing is gone except I can faintly see herm on one end

Old fan has 2 and 2 wires but new capacitor has 1 on fan. Where do i connect that wire. (IM NOT AN HVAC GUY)

Depends on the cap.

Chinese brands put whatever they have for terminals

Thank you for your Tip and Great video 😅👍

Also YOU DO NOT need to remove the common wires to test the cap…. Make it easier on yourself

Not all capacitors have the color code or the terminal theory. I've seen run capacitors with three terminals on herm and common.

Why is the compressor connector called herm ?

Seems that majority says it’s not always so. Not universally always so. I just take pictures to wire it back up correctly. And take note of how terminals position are relative to unit. DIY here. C was against unit the closest to it.

Some have it to where both common and herm have 4

I’m not very handy, this video helped tremendously!!!

Very Helpful ❤

Cool mine has only 2 and both have 4

What about the color of the lines?

Good video

Can someone help me I have a a/c squirrel cage fan I'm repurposing as a garage fan it's capacitor has only 2 terminals with 4 prongs each there's no words on the capacitor to tell me what is what. Both brown wires on the capacitor goes to the motor does it matter? For some reason the installers who installed me a new system cut both wires to the capacitor they didn't know I wanted to keep the squirrel cage fan they was replacing. I reconnected it and may have crossed the capacitor wires does it matter? The motor is running quiet and fine but running too hot after 10 min or so. Any ideas?

Whats Herm?

It depends on the capacitor. Always double check.

Should capacitors be positioned so that their male terminals are on the top to get the longest life out of them?- is it OK for a capacitor be positioned on it's side while it's in service?

Really enjoy the info. Sorry they’re just has to be jerks out there trying to show that they’re smarter than anybody else in the world. Anyway, thanks again.

Not always true!

This is a rule of thumb but not always accurate lmao

Not always

What does "HERM" stand for?

Fuck it just sell em a new system

Herm can have 4 like 5% of the time

Not true. On my old one, two have four terminals, and one has two.

Sometimes I have to look at schematics stuff is so rusted out

Wrong, my common has 3.

Not true depending on the age of the unit. Older caps did not follow this format. Ask me how I know.

I wonder how much you charge people for a super cheap capacitor

There's nothing universal about this tip

Just not true. Some have 4 on each. Do you even know what "herm" stands for? Or Do you just think it's herm.

Not true. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and just today saw a cap with 3 on common and 3 on herm. Yes 99/100 will be 4 C/3 Herm. But don’t say every universally across the board common always has 4. Not sure why some of you hvac “tech” KZfaqrs give advice that simply is not true. Maybe because you read it in a book? You need more field experience kiddo

Not true 😢

Wow. This video must be for diy ers

This is not true

This is not true. Most brands are like the capacitors in the video but not. Never say always. Never say never

The amount of hours searching this could have saved me. lol ... not funny

Wrong.

Large flashy read along captions are annoying AF. Added sound effects, bloop, chimes dings and bells are annoying AF. Good info video though.

If it took you hours to find that out, maybe you shouldn't be doing hvac.

Thanks

Thanks