A/C Not working!

leroyme

My A/C unit has been having problems through the last year or two, putting out less and less cool air. This year, we went on vacation and cranked the temp up to about 80*... We get home, and our house is 89*, at MIDNIGHT!!!! I do some checking, go out to the condensor to find that the center of the condenser (right above the fan motor, which is right on top of a black tank) is quite warm, but none of the rest of the unit is warm at all. It's not doing anything at the moment. I go back inside, the central air is blowing, but you can barely feel any air at all coming out, what is coming out isn't that cool at all. We hear the condenser trying to do something, so I go back outside to find that the pump is running (I guess that's what is going on), but the fan is not. The coils are being heated, but the fan is not going at all. I opened the top of the unit, and the fan looks like it's had better days. You can't tell it's dead, but it doesn't look too great. The lower half of it looks like it was leaking something, and is covered in dirt, similar to when something gets grease on it and collects dirt/dust. The fan spins freely, but I haven't seen it turn on at all.
Other observations:
My filter is fine, not clogged, replaced right before we left for vaca.
The blower motor is working, but I'm not sure it's 100%.
We don't seem to have problems with air flow during the winter time, with the furnace.

Where do I go from here?
Thanks

Marty S.

Sounds like the motor lost it's oil seal. Buy a new motor and capacitor. The new motor should be the same horse power,voltage,amp rating and rpm of the old one.

BTW turn the AC off until the motor is replaced or you could ruin the compressor.

biggles

first thing is spray the motor shaft and fan hob lock down so it slides off...take all the MOTOR info off the motor body only.....not the condenser tag.....if your handy it an easy change out save some money if not call servcie...motor might be availible at your local Grainger and there open saturdays but call first out there.get a new capcitor also note the uF size number stamped on the body of the cap volts also its just a range

leroyme

Well, late last night I got the fan to run. That kept the house around 78* for the rest of the night/morning. I called an HVAC company to come out. He replaced the cap, and gave it a good charge... Temp outside is around 90-95*. Temp inside (according to the thermostat on the wall, but it feels much cooler) is 77* for now. I watched the temp drop on the return line from outside from around 77* all the way to about 58*, so it's just a matter of time till the house is back to normal! Oh, he tried telling me that someone needs to come back on Monday to replace the capacitor that he just installed! His reasoning was that he didn't have the right shaped capacitor, and he could not mount it as the factory did, he had to zip tie it in place. Instead of paying for them to return on Monday, I told him to leave it, it would be fine. Unfortunately, the temp. is still nearly 80* inside the house. He did clean out the cooling fins, I'm not sure if that helped much at all.

leroyme