Non-woodworking gloat, of a sort

[roger wiegand]

We're having our first triple digit temperature days of the summer (and I hope the last!) so of course our central air conditioner died. As did everyone else's. (A lot of folks in NE wouldn't consider turning on the AC at a temperature below 95, Yankee frugality being what it is, so this weekend was the first time this season for lots of systems). Called for repairs, could get an appointment for some time in August. Thanks, but it will be fall by then, I hope.

Since the outside unit was dead to the world I hoped it might be something simple like a bad contactor. Opened it up and found a bug farm, with years worth of accumulated desiccated bodies. Took it to the shop, blew out the corpses, tested for appropriate continuity or lack thereof, and put it back in. Partial joy, the compressor hummed now but the fan didn't go on. Hmmm. Took a stick and gave the fan a spin and it whirred up to life. More partial joy. Everything was humming and spinning but there was little, if any cooling. The data strongly suggested a bad starter capacitor at the least.

I knew I'd need the capacitor unless I'd completely burned out the compressor by running it with no cooling, so I ran down to my friendly local HVAC store and picked up both a new cap and contactor (total bill, with tax $34), reinstalled them, and Victory! Big time cooling, which by this time we needed. All for 1/3 of the "diagnostic fee" I would have paid to get a service guy to show up next month. Yay!

[Andrew Joiner]

Gotta love that. Good for you Roger!

[John K Jordan]

I'm gonna call you if mine goes out! Might be a bit of a drive, though.

[Michael Weber]

Good job troubleshooting.

[Larry Edgerton]

Excellent!

Had a similar mini victory. We had a bad storm here and there are thousands of breaks in the power lines, called an electrician, and then another, and another to wire in a transfer switch and the same, in a month, when the power will be back on. So I called a lineman buddy of mine and asked him how to do it and he gave me what I needed to know, $20 in parts and my house wiring is working at a limited capacity. Sweet. No more cords to the fridge and the freezer.

[Jim Koepke]

Isn't it great to not be dependent on "the professionals."

Hope your significant other has rewarded you well or at least brought you an ice cold beverage.

jtk

[roger wiegand]

Isn't it great to not be dependent on "the professionals."

Hope your significant other has rewarded you well or at least brought you an ice cold beverage.

jtk

After I had been outside working in the sun, heat, and humidity she told me, in no uncertain terms to go take a shower and suggested I might burn the shirt I was wearing. :-)

[Tom M King]

I keep extra capacitors for lots of different motors in stuff here, including HVAC things. We're at the end of a mile long electrical system, so lightning strikes, anywhere in the area, don't do us any favors. The cable repair guy gave me a handful of their fuses, after coming for the third time.

[Bill Dufour]

I keep extra capacitors for lots of different motors in stuff here, including HVAC things. We're at the end of a mile long electrical system, so lightning strikes, anywhere in the area, don't do us any favors. The cable repair guy gave me a handful of their fuses, after coming for the third time.


With that much trouble you might consider installing a whole house line conditioner or at least one for the shops electronically controlled stuff. They are basically a one to one transformer so the voltage stays the same but it soaks up any transient spikes. Claim is that shutting down a high power motor causes a back EMF in the house wiring that can fry electronics over time. Surprisingly the home vacuum is the worst inside the house. Everything in the shop except the dust collector can cause the problem as well. Most good VFD's have one onboard already used as a load conditioner.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

I do not understand how you moved a central ac compressor unit to the shop and cleaned it there? Maybe some relays?
Bill D

[roger wiegand]

I do not understand how you moved a central ac compressor unit to the shop and cleaned it there? Maybe some relays?
Bill D

It was to contactor that went to the shop. ;-)

[Bruce Wrenn]

Dead bugs in contactor, common as cucumbers. Start caps are the #! cause of failure. Most have about a five year life expectancy. It's a wise idea to keep a spare on hand, along with a SET of fuses for disconnect. When I was maintaining rental properties, we always left a spare set of fuses in disconnect box. No AC, change the fuses, then call me back.