Posted: 8/10/2015 7:46:29 PM EDT
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Have a problem with my outdoor AC unit I was hoping someone might be able to help me diagnose. Got home from work today and the house was like 95 degrees. Indoor blower was running, but just blowing hot air, and the outside unit was off with the breaker tripped. Reset the breakers, and the fan came on, ran for about 5 minutes, then it popped the breaker again so i've left it alone. When the fan was running, didn't feel like the compressor was running and the fan seemed to be running slower than normal. Compressor started getting hot right before it popped the breaker.
These sound like symptoms of a bad compressor, or am I more likely looking at a bad capacitor? |
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Quoted: Have a problem with my outdoor AC unit I was hoping someone might be able to help me diagnose. Got home from work today and the house was like 95 degrees. Indoor blower was running, but just blowing hot air, and the outside unit was off with the breaker tripped. Reset the breakers, and the fan came on, ran for about 5 minutes, then it popped the breaker again so i've left it alone. When the fan was running, didn't feel like the compressor was running and the fan seemed to be running slower than normal. Compressor started getting hot right before it popped the breaker. These sound like symptoms of a bad compressor, or am I more likely looking at a bad capacitor? |
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Quoted:
Your description sounds like you have a compressor problem, maybe a locked rotor. Can you check amps on any of the compressor power wires when you turn power back on? How old is the unit? Ideally I could, but my multimeter is shot. It's a fairly old unit, but i'd obviously like to avoid replacing the compressor if possible. No way this is just a weak/failing capacitor not giving the compressor enough power to get going? |
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Quoted:
Ideally I could, but my multimeter is shot. It's a fairly old unit, but i'd obviously like to avoid replacing the compressor if possible. No way this is just a weak/failing capacitor not giving the compressor enough power to get going? Quoted:
Quoted:
Your description sounds like you have a compressor problem, maybe a locked rotor. Can you check amps on any of the compressor power wires when you turn power back on? How old is the unit? Ideally I could, but my multimeter is shot. It's a fairly old unit, but i'd obviously like to avoid replacing the compressor if possible. No way this is just a weak/failing capacitor not giving the compressor enough power to get going? If you had a multimeter that could read micro-farads you could tell within seconds if the capacitor is bad or not.  However, usually when a cap goes bad it just goes bad and either the fan won't run, the compressor won't run, or neither will run (Assuming you have a dual capacitor). Tripping a breaker after power is on for a few minutes suggests something to me other than a bad cap. If the unit is old and does have a bad compressor, there's no sense in replacing it, just replace the whole unit.
ETA: Also, please be careful when testing with the power on. |
Is the cap for the compressor bulging? Round or oval, the top should be flat like a tin can. If it bulges up, it's bad.
If you can't test it and aren't sure if it's bad, just replace it. You're talking maybe $20. If it works, you're golden. If not, well, you're going to be spending several thousand$ anyway so it doesn't matter. |
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Quoted:
Is the cap for the compressor bulging? Round or oval, the top should be flat like a tin can. If it bulges up, it's bad. http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w208/johnmeyer/9172ec0c-cb0c-4b9b-80e0-a4ac95b4d1b7_zps35b6bf85.jpg If you can't test it and aren't sure if it's bad, just replace it. You're talking maybe $20. If it works, you're golden. If not, well, you're going to be spending several thousand$ anyway so it doesn't matter. 
ive replaced bad caps that are not bulging... sounds like a capacitor is bad. replace the starting components. (overload for comp, and caps) |