A/C fail...

[Daniel Meyer]

Those of you that do your own work...and live where ya need air-conditioning will recognize these parts...



The condenser (outside unit) failed on the Cupola building's AC Saturday, and the resulting heat prevented us doing the heavy work we intended for the weekend...

Motor failed...grinds and sticks...and actually managed to start backwards on the final failure. Capacitor is suspect...contactor still works, but as been arching for a while and the contacts are damaged.

I'll be sourcing parts tomorrow (Graingers, usually).

[Scott in Ok]

Been there my friend.

A few years ago out at the farm house, the contactor coil opened up on my package unit.  It was July.  I had company for the weekend.  It was July.  My buddy owns an AC business, and could bring me a new contactor the next day, but it was friggen July! (85F at night)

So what would any resourceful redneck do?  Wedge a stick on the contactor to keep it running overnight of course. We had icicles on our noses the next morning, but it sure wasn't hot in the house!

-Scott

[Grumpy]

Hmm, that will get expensive, probably the cap failed first and took the motor out. No cap the motor tries to start on the run windings. Will fail pretty quick.

[BF]

Too dang hot to go without ac anymore.  

I can't tell from the pic, but has the cap swelled (the top of the cap puffed up)?  I've heard about alot of cap failures this year.

[Daniel Meyer]

LOL at Scott. Been there! (Here honey, just pull this string when it gets hot and tie it right here. Let it loose when it's cool. I'll have it fixed in a couple days)

At BF...not sure...it is definitely puffed up, but it may have been made that way as all the contacts are still straight...it's not leaking...but I suspect it's bad just given the condition of the contactor (bad caps will also give you more arching), and the fact that I witnessed a backward start...I don't have a cap tester so I'll just replace it.