My tiny condo was built in the 80s. For heat and A/C, it has one of those motel style, through-the-wall units. I turned the heat on yesterday and it was fine for awhile, then no heat. So I cracked it open to test the element. It has two coils, side by side, but only one coil is wired in the circuit. Each coil has what I think is a small capacitor in front. The capacitor(?) for the coil in the circuit is open, while the other one is fine. I found a picture of the heating element online at
This same thing happened last winter, but I had a home warranty on it, so I didn't mess with it. The HVAC guy showed me that all he had to do was replace the blown cap. It worked fine all winter.
To get the heat back to the way it was last winter all I really need to do is move the one wire to the other coil. But, shouldn't both sides of the element be in the circuit?
Thanks in advance, Shawn