Thinking back to last night the video DID say to used a screwdriver to touch the leads to ground it. Yikes. Glad I'm still here.
Sounds like the cap is your problem, but I also see this problem when the contactor is full of fire ants. The electricity seems to attract them and then they get zapped. After enough of them build up the contacts do not close anymore. While you are out there, I would treat with ant killer.
Yeah it might seems shady but they do have some of the best prices in town. And all the licensed A/C repair guys go there for the parts.. Just walk in like you are a licensed tech
Hey guys, late to the thread but I come from a long line of A/C guys. An important point about the capacitor, make sure you get the right size and the right Micro Faren (uF) number. Depending on the size of your unit, it's probably going to be a 5, 7.5, or 10. I would definitely look into the motor itself if you haven't already, basically by doing the test someone already suggested. (try spinning the blades with a wooden spoon or something) It's a simple test and what you want to see is that the blades will spin freely on their own. If you get any kind of resistance or anything you're probably looking at bad bearings. The plus side of doing that with the old capacitor in place is that if you have a bad capacitor usually the fan will start itself when you spin in manually. Also, definitely don't run your A/C until you get your fan motor running again. You don't want to blow your compressor. That will suck.
SEARS repair center on Park Row (near Park Ten and I-10) has parts. As long as the part is in their inventory, they'll have it in the back or can order it for you. I bought a relay for my refrigerator there and replaced it myself, carefully re-attaching the same cables back to the motor and putting it on the compressor. I did this with the help of a very good AC technician friend who troubleshooted the problem with me over the phone, and told me to buy the piece I needed. It was easy after that. Do you need an AC repair man?
Damn you guys are good. Thanks for responding so quickly last night because otherwise I would have called for a/c repair this morning. I called the a/c store above like I said and they said they had capacitors. I drove down there and they were extremely busy, but a guy took me to the parts section and found one that matched mine. It was shorter and fatter than mine (that's what she said) so i was concerned at first because I wasn't sure if the material I had to screw it into the unit would fit it. The guy with the part saw an a/c repair guy there and asked him if he had some metal strapping (bendable with screw holes in it). They guy took me out to his truck and cut me off about a couple of feet, didn't want anything for it. I showed him my old capacitor and he knew by looking at it that it was blown, showed me what it should look like (flat top, etc). The capacitor cost me a grand total of $21.11. Well, just $21 because they guy didn't want to give me change back and said that was fine. Luckily, I took a cell cam photo of how the other was wired because I certainly would have forgotten. Hooked it up, fired up the a/c and all is good for now. Thanks again...I'm sure you guys saved me in the hundreds of dollars or more if they had tried to tell me I needed a new compressor. You guys are great. Cool story bro.
I hate to be the one to break possible bad news, but I doubt that fixed it for good. My ac did the EXACT same thing last week, humming coming from the unit when it was started, no fan turning. If you turned off power for a few minutes and turned it back on, it would work for a while, then stop again. WHat I suspect is that it had time to rest and cool down, then when you fired it back up it worked...just like mine would after a bit of a rest. It ended up being a bad fan motor. I had a repairman do it, and it was only ~350. What you did *may* fix it, but if it goes out again....its the motor. Maybe you get lucky and that was truely your problem, but keep an eye out on it for a few days to make sure.
If it is the motor, they cost about $75 or so at a supply house, and they're not too bad to change. There are a few gotchas, though. For example, you have to get the height of the blades right on the new motor, and you usually have to cut off the excess shaft with a hacksaw. The wiring is pretty straightforward. (but make sure you tie off the wires so that they don't get cut by the blades) Anyway, that's why I suggested in my previous post that Hilltopper test the spin of the blades. If there's a problem with the motor, it's usually going to be bad bearings, which is why an older capacitor would have a hard time starting it but a newer one could. That's probably what happened with yours R2k. Another indicator is, of course, if you hear any squealing or vibration when the fan starts up.
Hilltopper, same thing happened to me a few months back. Funny thing is that I knew I had to replace my capacitor, but I was too afraid to do it myself (to discharge the capacitor). I had to pay ~$170 to have someone do it for me in about 5 minutes.
That may be the case, but the a/c guy I spoke with saw the capacitor and immediately knew that it had gone bad. I guess time will tell.
I don't follow the logic of how your problem compares to his. Plenty of people, including myself, have had the same issue as the OP to where all it ever was...was just the capacitor. Those things go bad. And, a lot of the time, that is all it ever is.
What you are describing is a turn to turn short in the motor. It will run until the overload opens and restart when it resets. That is not the problem he is describing.
Had same problem last year and turned out to be the capacitor and it cost $85 to replace it but the part was only $45. I seen him do it and I could have easily done it myself, lol.
no more than a word of warning. It may very well be just that, but considering the fans are exposed to the elements all day every day, fan motors go out jsut as much as capacitors...more often I would imagine. It cant hurt to keep an eye on it. DH, as you mentioned, the squealing on occasion upon startup several times prior to the final failure pretty much made my repair a no brainer, its just worth my time to have someone else take care of it.
No doubt, very informative. I had to get some freon added to my ac last year. The guy thought my compressor probably only had a year or so left. The builder put in some cheap carriers that are going out in less than 10 yrs. I'm hoping it lasts another year since we will probably sell within a year or so but this is good stuff to know
Do they make any type of protective devices for the outside unit? I've thought the very same thing. The rain drops straight from my roof into the unit.
I discussed this with my ac guy. He says that you can put whatever kind of protective shade thingy over it as long as you leave some room on top and the sides for the air to circulate thru the coils. I havent really looked around to see what I can use to accomplish this. First thought I came up with just now would be something like a big doghouse roof. Find a wood doghouse with a peaked roof, knock the sides out. I dont know, jsut a quick idea.
