fan blade direction reversed?

"Boris" wrote in message
09.88...

J Burns wrote in :

big snip

I see where I went wrong. Boris saw that the condenser fan wasn't
blowing. That's how I, too, first see if my compressor is running.
Yes. I look out the window so I don't have to go all around the yard.
I can't hear if the compressor is still? going or not.

The tech got the compressor going with cold water. Because I wasn't
thinking, I imagined the fan started at the same time, so the thermal
switch in the compressor must have controlled the fan.
I was inside the house, but the tech did tell me 'it' all started up
with the cold water. I assume the fan did, too, otherwise he would
noted that. Wrong.

If the compressor overheated, it had power. That meant the fan had
power. If both were stopped, it seems the fan stopped, and that
overheated the compressor.

A month ago, the tech replaced the fan because he thought that was the
cause of the problem.
No, he replaced the fan motor because it was squealing loudly. He also
replaced the associated capacitor. Maybe the old motor was wrong.
Maybe the cross
reference was wrong. Maybe he made a mistake. If he put in the wrong
motor, that could explain everything.
Yes, that could explain why the fan motor would overheat, if it is
overheating, but I don't think it's the problem.

Googling, I quickly came up with American Standard condenser motors
that run at 825, 1075, and 1625 rpm. I believe the load a fan puts on
a motor varies as the cube of the speed. If the fan was designed for
a 1/4 hp 825 rpm motor and it has a 1/4 hp 1075 rpm motor, the load
will be more than 1/2 horsepower. Overheating!
I am going back up this coming Sunday, and I have a second company
coming up the following Monday to give me a second opinioin. I
explained what has been done, and to send out their best diagnostician.
I said I'm not convinced the condensor is dying, because when it cools,
it cools well.

When I arrived Sunday, I'll do what trouble shooting I can, such as
watch to see if the fan and compressor turn off at the same time (or
not). I'll hose it off to see if both restart at the same time. I may
disable one or the other, to see if they are wired together. I'll do a
visual on the contactor.

Here's something I recently remembered. Around mid-2012, my dad said he
had the 'capacitor' changed in his a/c because it wasn't working. Was
it not cooling, was it not starting at all? I don't know the details,
and I don't know which capacitor, start or fan or... A few weeks later,
he asked me to come up and change the thermostat, because he couldn't
cool the house down with such a complicated thermostat (he was 87 years
old). I put in a less complicated one. Tested it, and it worked fine.
A few months later, the house wouldn't cool. The fact that it's weeks
or months between my dad reporting problems is not because the problem
was so intermittent, it's because he only used the a/c when it got
really hot, say 90-100. I suspect this problem has been going on for at
least since mid-2012, but only recognized by me when I took over the
home and went through my first summer season in 2014.