2 AC unit house about 9 years old (one up/one downstairs). No problems until last august, upstairs unit stopped blowing cool air. Had to call someone out, got us for $500 and I believe just replaced the capacitor. Fast forward to May and its not cooling, fan not turning, and making loud buzzing sounds. I tried to bump start the fan blades and that didn't do anything, although it seemed the fan was kind of stiff, only turning 1-2 rotations. The other one seems to really spin. I think the Ac company is going to flake out on coming back or covering anything, maybe I'm wrong, but around here they will try and charge a large service call just to take a look. Headed to work, but what should I look for when I get home? Tear the cover off and look at Capacitor? What next? Someone please save me another $500

Kill power to unit. Take mF reads of cap/s.+-6% of rating. If bad, replace. If motor, replace motor, cap and get new blades, the old one isn't worth the trouble of trying to get it off unless you have a good puller.

$500 for a $25 capacitor. You should have just changed that yourself.


Capacitors and fans are easy enough to change yourself.

Pretty easy and inexpensive to try a new cap and motor before calling out the pros. If the fan motor isn't spinning freely then the drag probably took out the new cap.

Thanks. Im going to take the panel off at lunch and take a look at the capacitor

I dont see any noticeable damage or bulging

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This is my meter. I tried using on the ohms but not sure what Im doing or what I should be looking for. I got some bumps but when going between yellow and red, it was minimal bump back to 1

Should I just buy a few of these as back ups? I asume this would work, just dicth the jumpers on the turbo 200
MAXRUN 45+5 MFD uf 370 or 440 Volt VAC 45/5 Microfarad Dual Run Capacitor for Air Conditioner or Heat Pump - Runs AC Motor and Fan - 5 Year Warranty

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Capacitor on second unit that runs
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The turbo's are pretty good and not OEM so it's been replaced and not long ago. Have to read on the mF scale to test with at least one wire per leg off. [I just pull both fan and herm and check both when I check them] If the compressor is running and the fan isn't then I'd bet the motor is bad as that cap looks OK.

Put a new capacitor on and no luck, so I ordered a new fan motor which will arrive next week.

New motors in and it works! Just in time for the weekend temps in the 90's.

Excellent!

Is there any value or use for the blown out motor? Does anyone rebuild them? Or just trash it?

Scrap it, junk.

Motors can be rebuilt but it's usually a few hundred on the low end. Leaving only the most expensive motors to be cost effective to rewind.

Don't pitch it with your other scrap though. Usually places have a special rate for motors/alternators/etc.

Thanks for everyones help. Nice and cool on a hot day!