On 19 Jul 2006 19:10:17 -0700, wyredog wrote:
In most cases, there is a resistor across the terminals of the
capacitor, so that it loses its charge in a few minutes (or sooner)
after being turned off.

You cannot assume that it is the case for YOU without knowing for sure
(ie, seeing and identifying the bleed resistor).

The first thing to do is to identify two terminals of the
capacitor. If you cannot do that, safety considerations suggest to put
everything back and call a "qualified expert". If you see two
terminals, take an isolated screwdriver by its isolated handle
(without touching metal) and make sure that you connect two ends of
the capacitor with the screwdriver.

Most likely (as would be in the case of a bleed resistor), nothing
would happen, but if the cap holds a charge, you can hear a loud
discharge. After you make 100% sure that the cap is discharged, it is
safe to handle it (and if you like to be really careful, you do not
have to touch the terminals anyway).

Why do you think that you need to replace the caps?

Thanks for the info!

I think the cap is the cheapest thing that may be the likely fix. See
what you think:

A few days ago I cam home to a silent outside unit (no fan no
compressor nothing). Found that the 30A breaker was thrown. Turned it
back on and it flipped off after a couple seconds. Later I tried it
again jsut because I was hot hand had nothing else to think about.
This time it worked...the heat pump turned on and ran as if nothing
were wrong.

Do you have a wife or anyone else who can turn on the breaker from
inside while you are outside, listening? Does it pop instantly or
after some little time? Does the A/C make a humming noise during that
time?

i

So I replaced the breaker hoping it was just to weak.

The breaker has to match the A/C, you know.

Same scenario with it. The AC will run ..on ...off on...off through
several cooling cycles then one time it will throw the breaker and
that's all she wrote until I go into the crawl space and turn the
breaker on again.

Other relavent factors: The unit is only 3 years old, Arco Air made by
Carrier. And it has been record heat here since just before this
began......causing the unit to run very frequently


I dunno, it possibly is not the capacitor. If you have a multimeter
(as you should) with a capacitance, tester, you can test it (it could
be bad at 220VAC even if tests OK by the tester, but still it is good
to test).

Do not assume too much too soon. Could be that something makes the
motor run harder than it should, for example. Some good investigation
and careful writing down of the facts could help.

You may need to "hire a pro", eventually, but you would run less of a
chance of being taken to cleaners if you form a good picture of what
is going on. Or maybe you can just fix it.

i