- Joined
- Feb 1, 2015
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- 10,093
Last Thursday night, I abut to head up to bed but it seemed like the A/C was running excessively long. The fan was running but when I went outside to check the compressor, it was not. The first check was the circuit breaker. There are actually two breakers tied with a pin . It was still on but a check for voltage out showed no voltage on one leg. I pulled breakers and replaced the one not working and reinstalled the breakers. The compressor started and it looked like a problem solved but after a few seconds, the fan dropped to a crawl and there was a faint smell of burnt Bakelite so I shut the breaker down and went up to bed.
The next morning, I turned on the breaker but turned up the temperature via the remote access app on my phone so I could restart the A/C while I was there to observe what was happening. I pulled the compressor access panel and immediately saw a problem. There was a dead 10" brown snake hanging from the capacitor with its back section bridging the 240 and the ground through the capacitor body.. I shut the A/C down removed the snake body and restarted the A/C but there was a significant arcing from where the snake had been do I shut the A/C down again.
Removing the capacitor, and inspected it. There was a carbonized path from the fan connection to ground and the insulator/seal on the run terminal was burnt badly enough that the remains simply fell out. Good to see the root cause of the problem bu I wasn't sure that the short didn't damage either the compressor or the fan motor. If it was the compressor, I would have to call a certified HVAC person to effect the repair or install a new HVAC unit so needed to verify that further damage hadn't been done.
................................................................ 
-------.....The excised snake................................................................and...............................................The destroyed capacitor
The capacitor is actually a dual unit for both the compressor and the fan motor. I had to replace the capacitor five years previously as the fan section had failed then. At that time, I found a capacitor to sub in which worked until a new capacitor arrived. I spent about an hour and a half looking for a good sub for the 35/5 mfd 370 volt capacitor without much success. I did find a 6 mfd oil filled which would work for the run section but no luck for a 35 mfd. I have a bunch of 12 mfd polyester capacitors so I wired three in parallel for 36 mfd. Kludgy but the alternative was enduring several days of July heat without A/C.
I connected the two capacitors and fired up the unit only to find that the fan wasn't operational. pulled the fan and checked it outside the unit on a 120 volt line. The fa was working albeit at a slow speed due to the fact that it was running on half voltage so I reinstalled it I then realized that the OEM capacitor had a common terminal for the 240 volt leg of the motors and the circuit was broken because of now two separate capacitors. I made up a bridge wire and connected it but had failed to reconnect a wire I had pulled previously. Doh!
I corrected the oversight and fired up the unit. It was now working. I checked to make sure that I was getting cold air and I was so I tidied everything up and secured the temporary capacitors with some zip ties and closed the cabinet up. I then placed an order for a proper replacement which should be here Monday or Tuesday. What was potentially a minimum $300 -400 service call and a most likely wait until Monday or Tuesday for a repair was accomplished in a few hours and a cost of $35.
The next morning, I turned on the breaker but turned up the temperature via the remote access app on my phone so I could restart the A/C while I was there to observe what was happening. I pulled the compressor access panel and immediately saw a problem. There was a dead 10" brown snake hanging from the capacitor with its back section bridging the 240 and the ground through the capacitor body.. I shut the A/C down removed the snake body and restarted the A/C but there was a significant arcing from where the snake had been do I shut the A/C down again.
Removing the capacitor, and inspected it. There was a carbonized path from the fan connection to ground and the insulator/seal on the run terminal was burnt badly enough that the remains simply fell out. Good to see the root cause of the problem bu I wasn't sure that the short didn't damage either the compressor or the fan motor. If it was the compressor, I would have to call a certified HVAC person to effect the repair or install a new HVAC unit so needed to verify that further damage hadn't been done.
................................................................ -------.....The excised snake................................................................and...............................................The destroyed capacitor
The capacitor is actually a dual unit for both the compressor and the fan motor. I had to replace the capacitor five years previously as the fan section had failed then. At that time, I found a capacitor to sub in which worked until a new capacitor arrived. I spent about an hour and a half looking for a good sub for the 35/5 mfd 370 volt capacitor without much success. I did find a 6 mfd oil filled which would work for the run section but no luck for a 35 mfd. I have a bunch of 12 mfd polyester capacitors so I wired three in parallel for 36 mfd. Kludgy but the alternative was enduring several days of July heat without A/C.
I connected the two capacitors and fired up the unit only to find that the fan wasn't operational. pulled the fan and checked it outside the unit on a 120 volt line. The fa was working albeit at a slow speed due to the fact that it was running on half voltage so I reinstalled it I then realized that the OEM capacitor had a common terminal for the 240 volt leg of the motors and the circuit was broken because of now two separate capacitors. I made up a bridge wire and connected it but had failed to reconnect a wire I had pulled previously. Doh!
I corrected the oversight and fired up the unit. It was now working. I checked to make sure that I was getting cold air and I was so I tidied everything up and secured the temporary capacitors with some zip ties and closed the cabinet up. I then placed an order for a proper replacement which should be here Monday or Tuesday. What was potentially a minimum $300 -400 service call and a most likely wait until Monday or Tuesday for a repair was accomplished in a few hours and a cost of $35.
