Posted: 5/22/2010 1:32:35 PM EDT
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One of my A/C units seems to have two issues at once.
1. The blower on indoor unit seems to be running very slow. Much slower than last year and much slower than the blower on the other unit which is identical. 2. The fan on the outside unit seems to be running very slow. Much slower than last year and much slower than the other unit which is identical. I've cleaned the filters. There is no grass or brush blocking the outside units. There were a few bubbles in the sight glass when I first started it up, but they disappeared after less than a minute. It seems to put out a little bit of cool air inside and the air coming out of the outdoor unit gets a little bit warm but not like I expect. The outdoor fan turns freely. Is there one problem that can cause both the indoor and outdoor fans to run slow at the same time (trouble with breaker or wiring?) or am I just "lucky" and have trouble with both at once? Thanks for your help. |
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Quoted:
My first hunch is that the caps for both motors may be shot. Can you please check them with your multimeter and get back to us? Oh and don't get shocked.  So I might be lucky, huh? I thought it might be a problem with the electrical supply so I checked the voltage out of the breakers on both while they were running and there was no difference. Just to be sure I swapped the breakers and both problems stayed with the same units. I guess I didn't realize that the caps could make the motors run slow - I thought the motors just wouldn't start. What kind of failure symptom am I looking for on the caps? I don't have an RLC meter at home - all I've got is voltage, current, resistance. I can take them to work and check them on the RLC there. Believe me when I say that I try hard not to get shocked. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
My first hunch is that the caps for both motors may be shot. Can you please check them with your multimeter and get back to us? Oh and don't get shocked. So I might be lucky, huh? I thought it might be a problem with the electrical supply so I checked the voltage out of the breakers on both while they were running and there was no difference. Just to be sure I swapped the breakers and both problems stayed with the same units. I guess I didn't realize that the caps could make the motors run slow - I thought the motors just wouldn't start. What kind of failure symptom am I looking for on the caps? I don't have an RLC meter at home - all I've got is voltage, current, resistance. I can take them to work and check them on the RLC there. Believe me when I say that I try hard not to get shocked. You need to check the capacitance of the cap against what it's rated label says. Usually if it's more than 10% out of spec, it's time to replace. Edit: Your multimeter sucks; get one that has capacitance on it. 
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Your multimeter sucks; get one that has capacitance on it.
What can I say? I'm cheap. I also usually use it for checking voltages while working on a car or to make sure the power is off when I mess with wiring in the house. Well, Father's Day is coming up so maybe I'll get lucky. If it is both caps did something happen cause them to fail at the same time or is that just a coincidence? Thanks for your help. |
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Quoted:
Your multimeter sucks; get one that has capacitance on it.
What can I say? I'm cheap. I also usually use it for checking voltages while working on a car or to make sure the power is off when I mess with wiring in the house. Well, Father's Day is coming up so maybe I'll get lucky. If it is both caps did something happen cause them to fail at the same time or is that just a coincidence? Thanks for your help. Probably just a coincidence. Even if you don't have a proper multimeter, you can still visually check them. Maybe it's oozing out all sorts of fun stuff, which means it's time to replace it. Hell, at this point, why not just go ahead and buy 2 replacement caps anyway and try them out. If the same problem persists, well at least now you've got spares for when they do go out. Caps are cheap. |