No, I'm a mild-mannered computer programmer. I'm just paranoid. :) I would prefer not to be sued if someone of modest ability reads that page, tries to repair their own air conditioner, and zaps themselves.
Matt Roberds
How BORING! Wish I had a picture of the one that blew on our ANCIENT Bryant condensing unit. It blew the cap halfway apart, I think there was a soldered seam down the side of an oval unit, and it opened it right up. It took some care to not get cut on the edges while replacing it.
Jon
Hi, I think that was BIG discovery for the OP.
When they are happening near me, I *like* boring failures. Somebody spent a lot of time and effort making sure that failures would be boring, and it paid off.
Not *BIG*, but somewhat of a relief. :) When your A/C quits in the middle of the summer in Oklahoma, large numbers preceded by '$' flash before your eyes. Finding out it was just the cap made me happy. I think I paid about $25 or $30 for the replacement. (Yes, people that buy them a dozen at a time pay less than that, but for me buying one cap one time, I was happy with it.)
When I saw the cap, I was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be bulged out on top like that, but all I could find online was a tiny, low- resolution picture of a bad one; I went ahead and replaced it and the A/C worked again. When I found the bad one again a couple of weeks ago, I figured its only remaining value was as an example, which is why I posted the pictures.
Matt Roberds
With the Obama economic depression in full swing, it's good to save a buck. Doesn't help the economy any, to sit on funds, but a man's got to do....
And, it's good to have the AC running. Thanks for sharing.
Me and my late friend with whom I did a lot of residential HVAC work, replaced more capacitors for customers living out in rural areas. When we installed electrical surge arresters right on the metal housing of the outdoor unit, we had no more capacitor failures. On thing that helps a lot is to replace a 370 volt rated capacitor with one rated 440 volts. ^_^
TDD
Actually, the latest I could have done that capacitor replacement was in the summer of 2008, because I moved out of that house in the fall of that year. It was probably between 2005 and 2008, during the Bush economic depression. Cutting taxes and starting two wars tends to do odd things to the economy.
Fun fact: since 20 Jan 1949, only two Presidents left office with the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower than when they started: Carter (it lost 0.8707%) and George W. Bush (it lost 24.92%). Ranked according to DJIA gains during their term(s), we have Clinton, Reagan, Eisenhower, Obama (so far), Truman, Kennedy and Johnson, George H.W. Bush, Nixon and Ford, Carter, George W. Bush.
Of course, the stock market is just one aspect of the economy.
Hey, I bought a capacitor! :) It would have been interesting to do the math on the $30 capacitor for the existing 10 SEER A/C, vs buying a new higher efficiency A/C, vs buying ice blocks, vs hiring young lovelies to fan me with palm fronds.
Matt Roberds
I don't live in a rural area, but I do have a 2009 Trane high-efficiency furnace and A/C that have a *lot* of circuit boards in them. Do you have any experience that surge protectors on the equipment help prevent board replacements and other failures "in town"? $40 for the Supco SCM150 you mentioned, or for a Square D SDSA1175, seems like cheap insurance to me.
On the replacement I did, both the new and old were rated at 440 V.
Thanks!
Matt Roberds
On 12/12/2013 2:03 AM, snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote:
To get all that super duper whizzbang high efficiency tree hugging equipment that won't murder cute little ozones requires some serious microprocessor controls. You know the result. Built in surge arresting technology has improved a lot over the years but the cost/benefit over profit for the manufacturers in the long run is what keeps the stuff affordable. $25 per unit spread over millions of units is a lot of money that doesn't go to evil rich stockholders. Anyway, I've seen power surges that are not direct lightning strikes vaporize a lot of properly installed and maintained equipment that would still be functioning if a little more money had been spent on power surge protection. I use surge arresters on everything I have and I would definitely spend a few hundred dollars to protect a $15,000 system in my home. Start where the power comes into your home. The power company in this state will lease, for a few dollars a month to a customer, a surge arrester that plugs in between the power meter and meter socket with a guarantee that your major items are protected with a kind of insurance policy. The more power surge arresters, up to a point, between your main source of power and individual piece of equipment will provide the best protection. The government wonks charged with protecting and hardening a facility's power system against little things like lightning strikes and the EMP from a nuclear detonation, have found that a cascade of surge protection starting at the power source and individual pieces of equipment gives the best protection. Of course, unless you're expecting a nuclear attack from the kid down the street, you don't have to take such drastic measures. Check with your power company to see what's available then a hard wired surge arrester at your breaker panel and on each expensive hunk of gear should give you the best protection. Just don't go crazy with it. Oh yea, don't forget your phone, internet and cable TV wiring. ^_^
TDD
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