Air flowing the wrong way out of our condenser

rufareal

I don't know a ton about heat pumps, but a neighbor (who also owns his own HVAC business) checked ours out the other day and said that instead of blowing hot air out, it is sucking it in. He put a leaf on top of the unit and he said if it was working properly, the leaf should blow up...but, obviously, it sucked it in. He said we need to buy a new motor and a new blade, but we really don't have all that in our budget now. The unit itself is probably close to 20 years old (we've been there for only about 2 years). If we continue to let it work incorrectly, will there be serious isses? Thanks!

Doc Holliday

Your electric bill and your comfort will be the worst of and issues as with the fan pulling air into the unit heat from the living space will not dissipate out. Air needs to be sucked from the outside in of a condenser ( heat pump) and dissipated into the air out on top so in one case your neighbor is right, air should be blowing from the top upwards and hard. With the air pulling in you will not be cooling your home as the heat that is supposed to be extracted from your home will just re-enter you refrigerant cycle and never really go anywhere so your system could run a long time and do nothing. Is this the case?

Polarity needs to be switched if it truely is running backwards meaning two wires are hooked up wrong, reversed. Your neighbor should have switched polarity around and got you going instead of just trying to sell you new equipment. I've seen motors run backwards for months and never have a problem once switched back as they can run in either direction for the most part so applying electricity to it won't damage it in either direction so new motor is iffy at this point, IMO. Yours is still running years after the fact so it's apparently still good, just reversed.

Some neighbor you have.

Marty S.

Put a new capacitor on it.

Polarity on single phase 240 doc?

Doc Holliday

I was thinking of that cap question from the other day concerning the 3 and 4 speed blower motors and polarity.

eh.

cascadehvac

someone may have replaced the outdoor fan motor with a reversable motor and set it up wrong?! fan blades could be updise down? your neighbor like you? could have helped more. sounds like he wants to make a buck off you. 20 year old unit does not warrant much money to repair. save money and replace

Doc Holliday

priceless.

beenthere

Yep, try a new capacitor before buying a new fan motor.

What was the reason for the new fan blade.

Some condensers, when their coil is real dirty, will draw air in at the middle instead of blowing air out of the middle, might want to clean that coil also.