Jud McCranie wrote:
I'm having a weird problem with our air conditioner. It is actually a
heat pump. About 8-10 days ago it was running but not cold air. I
cut it off for a few minutes and then it started working again. Then
last Wednesday it quit working and even seemed to be blowing heated
air! I'm fairly sure that it was heated air rather than recirculated
air. I tried cutting it off for a while, but when I cut it back on
the compressor wouldn't start. I tried this a couple of times.

Thursday I got the A/C repairmen out. They said it was a burnt out
capacitor. They also topped off the coolant, which was a little low.
They also cleaned out the drain, which was not working. It worked
normally for three days, then today it did basically the same thing -
blowing heated air. I cut it off for a few minutes and tried it
again. This time the compressor wouldn't come on and it was blowing
around room temperature air. I left it off for an hour or two and
turned it back on and now it is working again.

So right now it is working, but what is causing the problem? Has the
thermostat gone haywire? The night we first had the problem there was
strong lightning in the area, but no strikes were especially close.

You might have a compressor running on its last leg. How old is the
compressor?
The compressor may be having a hard time in starting and when that happens
it might have kicked out on internal overload and after sometime it has
reset and will work.
Maybe a hard start kit needed?

--
Moe Jones
http://www.MoeJones.info