It's hot outside and it's not getting much cooler inside. The fan on the outside A/C unit is not spinning. How do I determine if it's the capacitor, the motor, or the whole unit that needs to be replaced? Not much comes up online when I search the model number. The unit is 19 years old, so...
Weatherking is a rebranded ruud/rheem
Can you hear the compressor running?
If the compressor is running but not the condenser fan it's probably either a bad capacitor or bad fan motor.
With the unit OFF use a stick to spin the fan. Does it spin freely? If not the fan is probably bad. If it does spin freely turn the unit ON. Grab your stick and try to spin the fan again. If the fan takes off and starts running on its own then its probably a bad capacitor.
Try those things and report back
old_ said:Weatherking is a rebranded ruud/rheem
Can you hear the compressor running?
If the compressor is running but not the condenser fan it's probably either a bad capacitor or bad fan motor.
With the unit OFF use a stick to spin the fan. Does it spin freely? If not the fan is probably bad. If it does spin freely turn the unit ON. Grab your stick and try to spin the fan again. If the fan takes off and starts running on its own then its probably a bad capacitor.
Try those things and report back
I have been away from the house, but before you posted, I had spun the fan with a stick, but with the unit powered on. It spun freely, but did not take off. I think that I heard the compressor running at the time, but I'm not completely sure.
Get a meter and measure the capacitance. I would just swap it anyways as they are cheap enough.
Another vote for capacitor. Be careful if its retained any charge. Usually you can spot a bad cap visually... They swell or bulge sometimes. Check also the contactor.
If the compressor is running, it's either the fan motor or the capacitor. If it uses one capacitor for both, I would bet the fan motor is bad. If it were me, I would replace the capacitor and fan motor at the same time.
UPDATE:
Capacitor. $12 part, $13 labor.
I was sure that I was looking at a $6000 job.
mikeatrpi said:Another vote for capacitor. Be careful if its retained any charge. Usually you can spot a bad cap visually... They swell or bulge sometimes. Check also the contactor.
Bad capacitor was bulging at the top, but I didn't recognize it until he pointed it out. I knew what the capacitor was, but the bulging was very subtle.
Gee, here they will not charge anything less than $150 to change a capacitor. I keep a spare one just in case.
I found that the capacitor is easy enough to change out, but the local supply house wants something like $50 for the exact same one I can get from Amazon for more like $10. I've been meaning to get one from Amazon just to have around just in case, so I can avoid paying the $40 premium to get it RFN.
In reply to wae :
I picked them up at the local Grainger for a fair price. I keep an extra one now as they usually go bad during the weekend or when Grainger is closed.
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