Came home to 81°.

[4HAND]

Walked in from church this evening to 81° house.
Called a local A/C guy I know. He said I'll be there shortly.
He came on over & found/fixed my problem - capacitor. He also topped of my freon. He charged me very fairly for a Sun evening service call & I tipped him very generously. He didn't want to take the tip but I told him he had taken time away from his family to help me & I really appreciated it.
I love living in a small community.
Cool once again...........

 

[Ruger#3]

Walked in from church this evening to 81° house.
Called a local A/C guy I know. He said I'll be there shortly.
He came on over & found/fixed my problem - capacitor. He also topped of my freon. He charged me very fairly for a Sun evening service call & I tipped him very generously. He didn't want to take the tip but I told him he had taken time away from his family to help me & I really appreciated it.
I love living in a small community.
Cool once again...........

Write this date on the calendar three years from now. The crazy environmental laws have changed the content of the capacitors. They last 3 years average 5 years tops. Ask me how I how I know.

 

[Kev]

Walked in from church this evening to 81° house.
Called a local A/C guy I know. He said I'll be there shortly.
He came on over & found/fixed my problem - capacitor. He also topped of my freon. He charged me very fairly for a Sun evening service call & I tipped him very generously. He didn't want to take the tip but I told him he had taken time away from his family to help me & I really appreciated it.
I love living in a small community.
Cool once again...........

That’s good. I wish I had that experience with my last AC guy.

 

[4HAND]

He's a young family man, building his business. Unless something changes, he has a customer for life.

 

[Big7]

I have to pay very little for most things unless the parts/material are real expensive.

All the guys I run with are from different professions or trades and we just do stuff for each other free if nothing has to be purchased.
A lot of times, whoever is doing the work will have parts or material already paid for from other jobs.

Some of the older ones have died off so it's getting harder to network like that now but still doable on a lot of things.

 

[basstrkr]

Did the capacitor have any sing of failure? Leaking, corroded, swelled, discolored?

 

[Deerhead]

Write this date on the calendar three years from now. The crazy environmental laws have changed the content of the capacitors. They last 3 years average 5 years tops. Ask me how I how I know.

Wish they would last 3 years. My capacitor was working. It hummed. I turn my breaker off to the ac unit then it will run fine for a while. Had my ac guy put a new capacitor on two weeks ago and checked everything else. All was OK even put a new filter in. Last night it started the dreaded humming. Switched the breaker off/on its running but now I guess I need another new capacitor UHH

 

[Jeff C.]

Wish they would last 3 years. My capacitor was working. It hummed. I turn my breaker off to the ac unit then it will run fine for a while. Had my ac guy put a new capacitor on two weeks ago and checked everything else. All was OK even put a new filter in. Last night it started the dreaded humming. Switched the breaker off/on its running but now I guess I need another new capacitor UHH

Can you say C H I N A?.......more than likely.

 

[K80Shooter]

Wish they would last 3 years. My capacitor was working. It hummed. I turn my breaker off to the ac unit then it will run fine for a while. Had my ac guy put a new capacitor on two weeks ago and checked everything else. All was OK even put a new filter in. Last night it started the dreaded humming. Switched the breaker off/on its running but now I guess I need another new capacitor UHH

Hopefully you don't have a motor fixing to go out and it was just a bad capacitor from the get-go.

 

[Deerhead]

Hopefully you don't have a motor fixing to go out and it was just a bad capacitor from the get-go

The motor is 1 yr old. He tested the motor, I forget the number of amps but he said its fine. I have a capacitor at home ready to install.

 

[Jeepnfish]

This brutal heat is rough on capacitors. They'll swell up and fail. I've even seen where they go bad and the fan rotate in reverse.

 

[4HAND]

Did the capacitor have any sing of failure? Leaking, corroded, swelled, discolored?

Not that I saw, or that he indicated.

 

[oldfella1962]

How and where a capacitor is made can be a huge factor. In the Army I used to work on a radar system that had several capacitors on different circuit boards. They would go out now and again, and we replaced them ourselves. But for a few years the Army supply system bought a bunch of these capacitors from Mexico and Dios Mio they were notoriously unreliable and short lived. We were replacing them constantly. Also another problem with capacitors is dirty and/or fluctuating power sources. When we took a radar system to Bosnia one of the places had "guaranteed dependable" commercial power but had slight fluctuations in frequency (this was alternating current 400 HZ three phase power) as well as voltage and sure enough, we were going through capacitors constantly. Capacitors can be touchy under the best of conditions and air conditioner capacitors can be affected by nearby lightning strikes.

 

[snookdoctor]

It's a good idea to have a spare capacitor on hand. If you can throw a breaker, and use a screwdriver, you can save yourself lots of grief replacing it yourself when a service call can't be had for any length of time. DIY- ~$35. Service call ~$100 or more. Having the AC back in service quickly...Priceless.

 

[elfiii]

Write this date on the calendar three years from now. The crazy environmental laws have changed the content of the capacitors. They last 3 years average 5 years tops. Ask me how I how I know.

Funny you should mention that. We're on capacitor #3.

 

[Ruger#3]

Did the capacitor have any sing of failure? Leaking, corroded, swelled, discolored?

Mine didn’t show external failure at all when it failed. I watched the tech test it, it was failed. For the DIY folks, remember the capacitors job is to store power when you go to test it.

 

[K80Shooter]

Mine didn’t show external failure at all when it failed. I watched the tech test it, it was failed. For the DIY folks, remember the capacitors job is to store power when you go to test it.

If it is done wrong, then it will be a lifelong lesson learned.

 

[HuntingFool]

My air went out on the 13th. Compressor went bad and system is R22. Getting quotes for new system and working thru that but have had no air. Found a guy today that had a good outside unit that he just replaced so he came and put that one in for 300 to get me going thru this heat. He will most likely get the job for his customer service. I have several capacitors and fan motor go bad in the past. Always kept a spare of each on hand so I could get us going without a service call. Just wasn't so lucky this time.

 

[4HAND]

We had this unit installed Sept of 2014.
Until this incident, we've had no issues with it. Goodman.

 

[4HAND]

It's a good idea to have a spare capacitor on hand. If you can throw a breaker, and use a screwdriver, you can save yourself lots of grief replacing it yourself when a service call can't be had for any length of time. DIY- ~$35. Service call ~$100 or more. Having the AC back in service quickly...Priceless.

Good idea. Mine has an outside cutoff by the unit.
Looked like the capacitor was simple swap.