"TURTLE" wrote in message
...
"Keith Reding" wrote in message
link.net...
I thought I would get my York central AC unit repaired well before
summer
hits. The unit is about 9 years old. Last year, the unit stopped
cooling
but the fan still ran fine. The repair guy look at it and the wires
going
from the compressor area to the capicator had melted and stopped
working.
The repair guy replaced the wires and the capicator. A few months later
it
happened again. A different repair from another company installed a
heavy
duty wiring kit and the unit worked again for a few months then stopped
when
the wires melted again.
Obviously the unit is pushing too much current through these wires. A
friend said that it might have a starter relay on top of the compression
that is not shutting off after the compresser is started. I have not
taken
it apart to look.
Does this sound correct? I don't understand why the repair guys
wouldn't
know this? Any other suggestions on the cause of the problem?
Thanks,
Keith
This is Turtle.
First here, If the wires [ like the whole length is melting ] is melted.
You
have these things wrong with it. You have too big of a breaker to your
condenser unit or have to reset the breaker every hour or so, The wire kit
he put on it is too small, and You have a shorted out compressor somewhat.
If everything is installed correctly. You can't melt the wires.
There is no such thing as a shorted out compressor, somewhat. It's either
shorted out or it is not.
Keith the correct answer to your question, or at least as correct as any
observation can be using the information available and considering this is
as I always say the internet. Each of the three wires on your compressor
represents it's own respective winding in the compressor. Each, when
excessive current draw is present, indicate to a competent (dare I say that
word here), technician the correct path to follow with respect to
troubleshooting. So in order to even begin to remotely guess at the problem
one would need the information specific to which wire is carring excessive
current. Even though they all may indicate excessive current, simply due to
the proximity of one to the other, there is one that is the actual carring
the excessive current. With that being said, the first thing a service tech
would do is use an Amprobe to determine the actual draw in each conductor, I
further suspect that your friends assesment is incorrect, if what he
indicated to you were true, you would get zero run time out of the
compressor, it would quickly overheat and cut out on an embedded thermal
overload-quickly, not a few days, few weeks or few months. There would also
be other indicative attributes that you have not mentioned.Since from what I
read the most educated observation that can be concluded is that the problem
is associated with the run winding, assuming the capacitor that your are
referring to is in fact the run capacitor and not the start capacitor. There
are a multitude of factors that can contribute to issues with the run
winding in the compressor. To begin with the run cap itself can be
defective, has anyone tested or replaced it? A dirty condenser coil will
increase the current draw on both the run and common windings in the
compressor, has the coil been cleaned thorughly since the issues originally
occured. For the same reason that a dirty coil can cause it, so to can a
condenser fan that is not performing to design requirements, if enough heat
is not being rejected at the condenser because of dirt or a bad or faulty
fan it will be indicated in the compressor current draw. Oversizing wires,
if that is in fact what the latter contractor did, is not only bad practice
and stupid it is also dangerous. The wiring within the equipment is the size
(AWG), that it is for a reason. And finally, even though it would be
premature, provided the equipment is properly maintained, the fault may in
fact be a defective compressor, it certainly would not be unheard of. I
would contact a competent service company that uses meters to determine
cause.
Now secondly here. If the end only that tie on to the compressor are
melting about 1 to 3 inches back up the wire from the compressor. You have
rusted or defective terminal on your compressor and not letting the spades
connect correctly. I see this a lot on older equipment and you need a
screw
on clamp wire kit. It will have a screw on clamp to tie on to each
terminal
of the compressor. You buy them in sets and they will stop the burning of
the terminal off like you have. Now you have only about 3 to 6 burns off
before you burn the terminal off the compressor and then you will buy a
new
compressor because you will have nothing to put the clamp on wire kit to
hold the wire on it.
Now Have the breaker / wire sized for the condenser and put a you a clamp
on
wire kit on it and forget about it.
TURTLE
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