An electrode test system of a defibrillator including electrodes in a face-to-face test arrangement forming a capacitor, an impedance measurement signal generator connected to the electrodes and configured to send an ac signal to the electrodes, an impedance measurement signal processor connected to the electrodes which is placeable in an electrode test state and configured to receive an electrode test ac signal from the electrodes and process the electrode test ac signal to obtain a processed electrode test ac signal, a defibrillator processor connected to the impedance measurement signal generator and the impedance measurement signal processor configured to place the impedance measurement signal processor in the electrode test state and to receive the processed electrode test ac signal, analyze the processed electrode test ac signal to obtain an electrode test impedance signal and analyze the electrode test impedance signal to determine a pass condition or a fail condition of the electrodes.