Yet another heat pump failure...

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
A couple of weeks ago, my heat pump froze up. Turned it off, let it thaw, turned it back on, everything has been fine since.

Came home tonight, it's hot in the house (just 80, thermostat set on 77). Walk around back, outside unit is humming. No other noise at all, no outside fan. As I started to go inside to cut it off, I heard the contactor kick in, and humming got louder for a few seconds, then it kicked back to a low hum.

I'm letting it sit now to see if the pressure bleeds off and the compressor starts.

What does this sound like? Capacitor?
 
possibly a start capacitor...there is a thermal breaker in them that will kick off if it labors too long....you should be able to open up the control panel and visually see a capcaitor....
 
I let it sit 30 minutes, tried to start, same thing.

Will the cap usually look blown (bulged, oozing brown gunk or whatever), or just don't work? Is there a simple test? Where can I pick one up OTC?
 
Almost exactly a year ago was my last failure...within 2 days -- July 9th '09...

My post from last year...

kaiser715 said:
Just an FYI to add to the knowledge base.... My a/c died today. Just got in from getting it fixed (yes, it's 12:45a.m....and yes, my next door neighbor happens to a hvac tech). Outside unit was coming on, but air circulating fan would not kick in...so outside promptly froze over. Bad transformer. Tech's helper (brother) said it was a 220 to 24 transformer, there are two of them, common point of failure on the Carriers (don't know how accurate that info is...he wasn't up under the house fixing it, his bro was).
Click to expand...

As I recall, nothing at all from the outside unit then (no buzz)...this transformer wasn't powering up the relays/circuit board.

Can't get my neighbor tonight, though, they had a death in the family yesterday and are all up the street.
 
Like Ron said, first and easiest thing to check is the capacitor.
I've been through 3 now, twice in old house, and last week in our new one.
When the cap blows it will have a bulged top to it. Pretty obvious. Just take the panel off and look at it, you'll be able to tell...

If that's it, getting one quickly may be tricky, being that not many places sell parts to non-HVAC licensed contractors. They are out there but you kidn of have to ask around. Reedy's in Winston sells them and all kinds of parts but that won't help you ;-0
 
Just pulled the lid off...yep, the top of the cap is bulged out. Got the #'s....

But actually, I will probably call the HVAC guys in the a.m....if they can get to it any time tomorrow, I'll just let them come do it and check the system over while they are here, it's been a while. I had a fan control board go out after a storm in '05, they (HVAC company here, not the neighbor) didn't ream me too bad for that (under a couple hundred total for parts and labor).
 
kaiser715 said:
Just pulled the lid off...yep, the top of the cap is bulged out. Got the #'s....

But actually, I will probably call the HVAC guys in the a.m....if they can get to it any time tomorrow, I'll just let them come do it and check the system over while they are here, it's been a while. I had a fan control board go out after a storm in '05, they (HVAC company here, not the neighbor) didn't ream me too bad for that (under a couple hundred total for parts and labor).
Click to expand...

Ah see it's nice and simple, then. Nice!
Biggest problem you may run into is getting them there tomorrow. I'm assuming it's hotter than hell like it is here - when ours kicked the bucket last week, we couldn't get anybody to commit to being here for 2 days at least b/c they are so busy.
I'm just saying if you're in a "must fix now" situation, it may just be faster to find the cap yourself and replace.

For us, pregnant and miserable wife + 2 small kids in house meant action was critical
 
bigger problem..that cap costs less than $20...the HVAC guy if not a friend will charge 150-200 for it
 
A friend just had the same problem and found these two semi local places with them in stock last week.
Cashwell Appliance parts in Garner for $18
D&l Appliance in Durham for $10

good luck
 
Got it fixed. Cap and contactor together were about $40. Took maybe 10 minutes to get it back together.

I'm gonna run back and get a spare cap.
 
Good deal, also, make sure you are changing the filter, clogged filters and heavy use put a lot strain on the units and can cause them to freeze up and fail.
 
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