Outside AC unit isn’t working. Flipped all breakers and still nothing... any ideas on a reset button? Trying to save a call to AC man
OT outside AC unit
- Thread starter expireddog
- Start date
Fan isn’t turning and no humming sound. Won’t do anything. Was working fine yesterday. Did some flower bed work and pressure washing around unit and now not doing anything. I figured I may have tripped breaker or triggered some sort of reset button. Breakers are all good. Unit in attic is working but nothing from outside unit.
My inside unit is making a loud ticking sound that changes from soft to loud and I can't get a tech for another week because we are under quarantine.
At least we are back in the 70's after a couple of days around 90.
At least we are back in the 70's after a couple of days around 90.
The pressure washing around it makes me wonder if you also might have gotten water in the circuit board. If so, likely 3-500 bucks.
Eta- Previous poster mentioned ants. All that water from pressure washing could have displaced the ants to higher ground, like your board or breaker box. The fuse is a pullout. Check it.
Eta- Previous poster mentioned ants. All that water from pressure washing could have displaced the ants to higher ground, like your board or breaker box. The fuse is a pullout. Check it.
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Mines out. New it was going...hottest weekend of the year. Now I’ve got to invite strange people into my home to fix it while all this **** is going on and I can’t afford it.
Me too. A buddy of mine is our AC man and Friday when he dropped by to check our unit he jokingly said that there is no telling how long he would around because he's exposed to everyone's air, clean or CV tainted, while servicing their AC. I cringed a bit.
The contactor. You can push down on the contact with an insulated screwdriver to see if it kicks on. There is 220 volts at the contactor so if you screw up you won't have to worry about getting the virus. You could also turn off the power to the unit and spray some contact cleaner on the same part of the contactor.
Use the screwdriver to push down where the "pulls in with 24VAC" is pointing to in the pic.
View attachment 15701
There may or may not be a cover over the contact if it's a newer unit
View attachment 15702
I would change out the relay switch. If you hear a hum on the outside unit it's probably this. You can buy one at a AC supply store for under $20 so it's worth a try. Your friendly AC repairman will charge you $150. Take it in and they will match it for you. Yes, they get dirt, bugs, even lizards in them and stop working. Be double sure the power is off before doing opening the panel to even look. There is enough power here to kill you. Also, take a picture of the wires before removing the relay so you can be sure everything goes back the way it came out. Good luck.View attachment 15703
Lots of good and bad info in this post. Most likely culprit is a bad capacitor that you can change yourself for less than $40. Usually when they go bad, they swell. Easy enough to check for that. Next most likely problem is a dirty/ant covered contactor. Also easy to check. The water didn’t hurt it. It has sat out in record rainfall for the past four months.
If your in Madison/Ridgeland I can hook you up w/ no cost. There is no reset button, it's like the others have mentioned - bad capacitor or bad contactor. Would take someone like myself 5 mins to fix and part cost is < $30.
[email protected]
[email protected]
It may just be local code - but I have a breaker under my house, in addition to the ones in the breaker box and next to the units themselves. I don't think there's a reset button, per se.
I recommend keeping a spare capacitor and getting a decent multimeter that reads capacitance. I can almost promise you it will save your bacon one day.
I went ahead and bought an extra board after the service guy kept warning me when he was dealing with other issues. It eventually went out. Capacitors and boards are probably 75% of service calls.
I know much more about HVAC than I ever wanted to because my 2 units weren’t installed properly and never worked right.
I went ahead and bought an extra board after the service guy kept warning me when he was dealing with other issues. It eventually went out. Capacitors and boards are probably 75% of service calls.
I know much more about HVAC than I ever wanted to because my 2 units weren’t installed properly and never worked right.
My experience and bulldogcountry's are very similar. Had at least a half-dozen service calls for various ****. One of which, was the numbnuts who installed, zip-tied some wires to the high-side copper near the condenser. Years of vibration eventually wore the insulation and cooked the board.
Also, if you have any service done to replace a capacitor or a board, ask for a hard start kit, and make sure no one has bypassed the compressor start up delay.
Also, if you have any service done to replace a capacitor or a board, ask for a hard start kit, and make sure no one has bypassed the compressor start up delay.
went out on a Sunday? It’s more than likely the run capacitor. My outside unit blew one on a Saturday night and I luckily know a guy that knows a guy and I was able to get a used capacitor with the same milliFarad and similar voltage on a hot Sunday.
I bought a new one for a backup and that used one blew the next summer... on a Sunday.
replaced it in 10 mins and was back up and going again.
my unit was humming and then would stop for a while.... it would humm again and stop for a while again.
before you call a repair man, open the cover, TAKE A PICTURE OF THE WIRING WHILE ITS STILL HOOKED UP, pull the capacitor and the contactor, and go buy one of each at an A/C supply store. It will more than likely save you a repair call. If it doesn’t, it saved you having to change them soon anyway if your unit has some age.
When you put it together, kick the breakers back on, and start it up... the A/c outside may not come on the first time. Mine doesn’t. Shut it off, wait a min, and then start it again.
its an easy swap if you are somewhat mechanically proficient.
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[h=2]I've had the ant problems as well as the capacitor. Last summer was the[/h]
capacitor. The unit would hum and finally kick on but it got worse. I had a guy check it out and he said if it was him he wouldn't change it until it stopped working because it wasn't hurting anything and he would come back soon (it was HOT arse part of summer and he was swamped) with a new one and fix it. I went and bought one and did it myself. I was there when the guy came and discovered the ant problem. He took the panel off and there were thousands of ants in there, he said the unit makes a humming sound that is like something the queen does and they are attracted to it. He killed the power and blew them out w/ compressed air. After that time, it happened twice more before we sold that house. Both of those times i killed the power and cleaned the ants out and it started working fine again. Hope yours is that simple.
Didn't read all the recommendations... check your thermostat wire. Could have knocked the connection lose or broken/cut the wire into.
Reduces the amp draw when the compressor starts up. Essentially stores alot of energy to ease with startup.
So problem was drip pan in inside unit in attic and it was full which was leaking into another pan with a floater and once it got full it and floater was stuck at top position it shuts off outside unit. Repairman saidnif wouldn’t have had floater would have had huge wet spot/leak/water problems.
Not sure if all wording is properly used as I as was on conference call with boss when repairmen were here and I’m not well versed in ac repair.
Thanks to all who responded with possible help information.
Hail state and hopefully normalcy returns soon.
Not sure if all wording is properly used as I as was on conference call with boss when repairmen were here and I’m not well versed in ac repair.
Thanks to all who responded with possible help information.
Hail state and hopefully normalcy returns soon.
A hard start kit is also known as a start capacitor. A lot of people do install these on new systems. Some don’t. They are actually not that necessary if you have good power all the time. I have nine air-conditioning systems in my house and my issues have rarely involved capacitors contrary to most of these posts. I’m not saying that’s not your issue, I’m just saying’.
Bad capacitor was second only to loss of freon for service calls when I did A/C work.
