AC issues, please confirm my diagnosis

[kaisen]

Glad you got it handled without having to call a specialist to come out and charge you $250 to do the same thing!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Glad you got it handled without having to call a specialist to come out and charge you $250 to do the same thing!

Yep, me too. I've found that there's not usually much stuff around the house that can't be done much easier and cheaper yourself. Sometimes it's worth it to pay, but not usually.

Yep, a younger guy at work had a funny story the other day about that sort of thing. He had a leak under a toilet at home and called someone to come out for a "free" inspection/visit. While there, the guy talked the wife into him opening up the wall behind the toilet to see if the leak was in the wall. So his free visit turned into a $300 charge for a guy to cut a big hole in his drywall. The guy was then going to charge $250 to replace the wax ring under the toilet. I told him it was easy to do and cheap to get the wax ring, so he ended up doing that himself, but he was irked that he had paid for someone to come and not only not fix his problem, but to trash his stuff.

Apparently, very recently, he'd had a problem with the drain on the indoor AC unit being clogged. He got up in the attic and used his wet/dry vac to get the water out and sucked on the pipe with it. Apparently, he sucked the clog out in the process. But wanting to be sure, he called an AC guy to come out and look at things. He thought it was going to be a free visit, but it was $75 for the guy to come and and say "yep, you fixed it."

[Baz]

Yo Steve,

Good job! Don't forget about the window unit as a backup. In states that we live in AC = survival!

Thanks for the followup report. Stay cool, man.

[cabmandone]

Glad you got it running.

[BK911]

Not a bad idea to keep a spare capacitor around just in case.
I have a shelf full of spare parts for most of the common failure stuff.
Capacitors, start relays, water heater flame sensors, fuses, breakers, etc...
Couple hundred bucks worth of stuff that I may never use, but still pretty cheap insurance just in case.

[rick-l]

Originally Posted by fdbzdfhhu

It seems like replacement should be pretty darn easy, but any tips on doing it safely?

contains hidden image ^^^^^

and if you pull the disconnect which is supposed to be readily accessible, and within sight of the condensing unit you would have a hard time hurting yourself.

[1990C4S]

The disconnect will not protect you from a charged capacitor.

It should be grounded before you touch the leads.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rick-l

contains hidden image ^^^^^

and if you pull the disconnect which is supposed to be readily accessible, and within sight of the condensing unit you would have a hard time hurting yourself.

I don't have a disconnect. I assume it's because my house was built in '67. But my breaker box is outside and only about 15-20' from the outdoor unit. I killed the AC double pole breaker and confirmed with a multimeter before I started messing with the wiring.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

The disconnect will not protect you from a charged capacitor.

It should be grounded before you touch the leads.

Yep, I was concerned about messing with a big capacitor, so I checked the net the other night and found several sites that said you could just short across the terminals (c to fan and c to herm) to discharge the thing safely. I was surprised that there were no sparks, but then the fact that the problem was the capacitor....

[rick-l]

If it is properly connected to the motor it should be discharged.

[1990C4S]

Agreed. Should being the key word.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rick-l

If it is properly connected to the motor it should be discharged.

That would explain why there were no sparks, but better safe than sorry, right?