air conditioner won't stop cooling

I have a new Kenmore 5500 BTU window room air conditioner. It was purchased a few years ago, but is new in the sense that it has never been used and was first installed and used beginning only yesterday.

It cools the room well, but the problem is that it won't _stop_ cooling!

Once the room has cooled to a desired room temperature and I turn the TEMP dial down from the coolest setting, even all the way down, the AC continues to cool. I can sometimes hear the thermostat click as I turn the dial down, yet there is no change -- the unit continues to cool.

It doesn't matter if the MODE is set to HIGH, MED, or LOW COOL or to POWER SAVER. In fact, at one point I had it set to POWER SAVER and the warmest TEMP setting and I ended up falling asleep, and I awoke to a very chilly room of around 65 degrees. It simply won't cycle off.

Please, does anyone have any ideas about what might be happening here? Rememer, this is not an old, used AC. Thanks!

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snipped-for-privacy@none.com wrote

All those just control the fan motor and have nothing to do with its cooling.

Does it have a standard rotary control or is it electronic?

If a regular rotary control it sounds like the thermostat's contacts are shorted in which case the thermostat likely needs to be replaced. There may also be a relay used on your model (for the 'power saver' feature) which might have shorted contacts.

If an electronic control, that control or some relay used in conjunction with it may be the problem.

Dan O.

- Appliance411.com

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Dan O.

In alt.home.repair on Fri, 04 Jul 2003 12:12:01 -0400 snipped-for-privacy@none.com posted:

You're on the right track. The click would normally mean that the thermostat has changed to off, an open switch. That leaves two possibilities. a) the switch is broken somehow and even though it clicks, it doesn't turn off. b) they plugged in the wires wrong and somehow bypassed the thermostat. That's not inconceivable. I gather your warrantee has expired. I think that's fair, but they still might honor it if they do repairs in your city. If all they do is give you a new one and ship the old one back, that would make it less likely. If they don't sell that model anymore, that would make it even less likely. But what I would do is open it up and check the wiring. It's pretty simple, but you should have a volt-ohm meter with an AC range 110 volts or higher. They all have that. If you need to know more about meters, write back. There might even be a chart inside.

There should be 110 volts going into the switch, which will be right behind the knob. And there should be 110 volts coming out when the temp is set at one extreme and Zero coming out when it it set at the other. If it is never zero, it's probably the switch, disconnect the output wires and measure again. If it is the switch, maybe before you take the whole thing apart you should see if you can get a replacement switch. I"m sure with sears you can, but this is a just a good idea. If you can't, you can try to sell the unit to someone who will only use it during the day and he can arrange to turn it on and off with a switch.

If it does go to zero, track down which wires go to the compressor. It should be the wire from the switch, right? and the return wire which should go straight to the power cord. Maybe no wire goes to the switch..

BTW, they test each unit before shipping, but I can imagine they don't carefully test for cooling but not for this, or they're careless about this test because they all pass.

The first 3 are just fan speeds. They have nothing to do with whether the compressor is on. Most ACs are built so that the fan runs all the time. I rewired mine so that when the compressor turned off, so did the fan. That way it was quiet at night after it got cool.

I think but i don't know that power saver is equivalent to what I did. All it is intended to do, I think, is turn the fan off when the compressor goes off. They should call it Hearing Saver, or Don't Drive Me Crazy switch instead of power saver becaause the amount of power saved would be next to nothing. If I'm wrong about its use, skip this paragraph.

Meirman

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Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

Reply to
meirman

its doing what you want it to do: if you turn the dial down then thats the problem.. how about setting the dial UP that might heat it up or it is possible that the thermostat contacts are closed and will not open... the only thing that is happening is that when the compressor heats up from running too long the heat overload(too much amperage use) the compressor will click off so it will not burn up and then it starts all over again..... if the thing with the dial does not work then it might be the thermostat. take it apart and check it out....

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jim

In alt.home.repair on Fri, 04 Jul 2003 12:12:01 -0400 snipped-for-privacy@none.com posted:

BTW, is there any chance you have it backwards which is hot and which is cold. Lower temperature = more cooling. I've always thought that is a recipe for confusion, at least for me.

Try turning the knob the other direction, even if it makes no sense.

Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

Reply to
meirman

Hi snipped-for-privacy@none.com, hope you are having a nice day

On 04-Jul-03 At About 03:12:01, snipped-for-privacy@none.com wrote to All Subject: air conditioner won't stop cooling

n> From: snipped-for-privacy@none.com

n> I have a new Kenmore 5500 BTU window room air conditioner. It was n> purchased a few years ago, but is new in the sense that it has never n> been used and was first installed and used beginning only yesterday.

If it is new it may still be in warranty. I would check on that first.

.. You can't get there from here. You have to go somewhere else first

___ TagDude 0.92á+[DM]

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HvacTech2

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