Yes, they very commonly fail. Yes, there is a work around.
Not sure that the work around is sold to the public. I've
serviced a bunch of balky compressors, like that.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


wrote in message
...
My dehumidifier works sometimes, but other times the
compressor
doesn't seem to start up. Fan runs when it is supposed to,
humid
level dial seems to be working, water level switch is ok.

When it runs, the coils get cold, 1 pipe from the compressor
gets hot,
1 gets cold (where not covered by insulation) and everything
is
golden. Other times, sound and fury (fan), but no
dehumidification.

I went looking for a relay or something that might be stuck,
didn't
find one, but did find: "Klixon 4TM" and "Jahwa Positive
Temperature
Coefficient Thermistor" under a cover on the side of the
compressor.
The Klixon seems to be an overtemp protection device. The
Jahwa thing
is a mystery to me. It seems to have something to do with
switching
the start capacitor in/out of circuit. Do these things
fail? Are
they available to Joe Average as replacements? Is there a
work
around?

Any advice appreciated.

Red