Hi. My ceiling fan failed with a typical inflated capacitor. Seen and replaced a few successfully before.

Almost bought this one yesterday when noticed different voltages. Why are made like that ? Different speeds present different voltages ?

 

This is a motor speed control capacitor. I use them to reduce the speed on AC fans.
There is a switch that switches in only the 4.5uF cap for low speed, the 4.5//6uF for medium speed and all three caps for fast.
The light green trace in the powerline voltage. 150V peek
The Red trace is the voltage across the fan motor at low speed. 47V peek. Note there is 103V across the cap.
The Green trace is the larger voltage across the fan in medium speed. 92V peek. Note there is 58V across the two caps.
The Blue trace is the larger yet voltage across the fan in the high-speed setting. 115V peek Note there is only 35V across three caps.

 

Thanks, well explained, Ron.
Found this with all the voltages the same :



If the 5uF purple on post ·1 is wired as for low speed, then could let the smoke leak... Must respect the colors then.