My HP system was doing great last night at bedtime. (100 degrees outdoor ambient, 75 indoors).
However a couple hours later the house started getting warm and I observed that the condensor was dead w/air handler still running. (no outdoor fan or compressor running). I cycled power and the AH came on again but the condensor didn't even after the 5 minute delay. (I'm 100% sure the fan didn't come on and don't think the compressor did but I could be mistaken.)
This morning I tried it again and the outdoor fan was dead but the compressor came on.
This afternoon I'm going to diagnose it further however my theory is that the outdoor fan motor's starting capacitor went out. Without the fan running would pressure build up since condensing activity was severly limited by lack of airflow by a dead fan? I suspect the higher then normal pressure tripped the high pressure limit lockout. Maybe by this morning pressure had equalized enough for the compressor to start but the outdoor fan remained dead.
The other theory I had was that there was a unexplained loss of refrigerant that tripped the low pressure shutdown. However if that was the case why did the compressor start up fine this morning when it was 30 degrees cooler outdoors and thus even lower pressure then last night? There was absolutely no sign of diminished cooling up until the time it failed.
I'll check the Ranco debug codes tonight and test the starting capacitor. Fortunatly I have a spare.
I'm just curious if my theory makes any sense?
This is a 4T Rheem RPNE system.
However a couple hours later the house started getting warm and I observed that the condensor was dead w/air handler still running. (no outdoor fan or compressor running). I cycled power and the AH came on again but the condensor didn't even after the 5 minute delay. (I'm 100% sure the fan didn't come on and don't think the compressor did but I could be mistaken.)
This morning I tried it again and the outdoor fan was dead but the compressor came on.
This afternoon I'm going to diagnose it further however my theory is that the outdoor fan motor's starting capacitor went out. Without the fan running would pressure build up since condensing activity was severly limited by lack of airflow by a dead fan? I suspect the higher then normal pressure tripped the high pressure limit lockout. Maybe by this morning pressure had equalized enough for the compressor to start but the outdoor fan remained dead.
The other theory I had was that there was a unexplained loss of refrigerant that tripped the low pressure shutdown. However if that was the case why did the compressor start up fine this morning when it was 30 degrees cooler outdoors and thus even lower pressure then last night? There was absolutely no sign of diminished cooling up until the time it failed.
I'll check the Ranco debug codes tonight and test the starting capacitor. Fortunatly I have a spare.
I'm just curious if my theory makes any sense?
This is a 4T Rheem RPNE system.