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Ralph Mowery Ralph Mowery is offline
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Default "hard start" on AC

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 8 Jun 2016 19:09:57 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Hello, I have a Rheem heat pump, model Rpnl-043jaz. The lights in my house all flicker every time it goes on....Will the hard start kit resolve this problem?


A hard start might actually make that worse. It does just what it
implies. It adds an extra capacitor to the motor to kick it harder on
the start. This is used when the compressor is getting old and will
not kick over reliably on it's own.

If your connections are solid from the utility, it may just indicate
that your service conductors are too long or too small.



That was my thoughts also. That the hard start kit might make it worse
as it should cause the motor to draw more current on startup. Unlike
some devices that ramp up the motors slowly.

Could be loose connections of the house wiring or just too small of wire
feeding the house.

I don't know about the Rheem unit, but I was looking at some of the
Trane units and they have what seems to be a hard start kit already in
them.