My central a/c won't work:(!!! HOT IN TEXAS!

[<kjpro]

I see this is over your &#39;scope&#39; as she said the outdoor fan is running.

[<kjpro]

Or something you failed to mention.

[<kjpro]

I see your not very &#39;smarty&#39; when it comes to residential air conditioning systems.

120 volt fan motor... yeah, ok, whatever.

[<kjpro]

unquestionably

[<kjpro]

10 minutes... ???

What&#39;s that going to do? Give it time for a smoke break?

[<kjpro]

unquestionably

As she said at alt.hvac

that&#39;d be unecessary :-)

[mm]

As I understand it, the folks at alt.hvac are always tough, but you still should learn to phrase questions according to the audience.

I don&#39;t know enough to have an opinion on the root question, but I know that pros don&#39;t think that they, or that many other pros, overcharge for small repairs. Therefore, using 3 $$$ signs is insulting to them.

A lot of usenet people dislike stories. They want the question up front with any details afterward, and they especially get bored if you first say nothing cold and then change it to pretty hot. Maybe they&#39;re insulted because the person writing didn&#39;t bother to reread and edit her post for conciseness before posting.

Even here this bothered people, and I, who sort of thought it was meant as a joke, didn&#39;t get the feeling that it was meant as a joke, and even I was somewhat annoyed. Pros have this thing about them, in whatever area they are pros in, that they take things more seriously than amateurs. I thought you would take that out before you posted in hvac. But you posted the very same post.

"no good reason" is like kicking the ac in that it&#39;s not serious but doesn&#39;t reach the level of funny.

You have to get to know your audience.

[HeyBub]

What&#39;s that got to do with anything? Evidently you don&#39;t realize that the compressor and the fan are two independent devices. One can run without the other.

[Smarty]

Well, in actual fact, my rental units ***DID HAVE A 120 VOLT FAN" which was switched with the contactor on one pole only, leaving the other pole to handle the 220V feed to the compressor. I actually had a failure of exactly the type described by the original poster, and this failure was the corrosion / rusting of the contactor terminal on the compressor feed side / pole. The fan continued to run but the compressor did not. The unit was a Weatherking made by Addison Products. I imagine that the 220 volt fan motors are much more common since that is what I have seen in my servicing Lenox and Carrier units.

My point in posting originally was that the compressor was not necessarily at fault, and jumping to the conclusion that it is at fault is a poor way to diagnose the problem. As someone else here as suggested, a good VOM / multimeter and knowledge should be the way to troubleshoot.

Smarty

[<kjpro]

They both get their power from the same contactor!

[<kjpro]

Have a model number?

I liked the &#39;kicking&#39; diagnosis. :-)

[HeyBub]

But not the same contacts. The compressor draws considerably more current and the contacts regulating the compressor are much more prone to burning and pitting.

[Speedy Jim]

That would depend greatly upon the mfr and model. Often, the combined amp load of both is low enough that a single set of contacts (2P) is adequate to carry fan and compressor.

Jim

[<kjpro]

We&#39;re talking a small residential system here... they&#39;re on the same contactor!

[HVACTECH2]

They are seperate devices but in 99% of residential units they both run off of the same contactor. so what kjpro says is probably correct. there are exceptions and without being there a diagnosis is impossible.

[CJT]

There are no real pros over there. Just losers.

[CJT]

... but don&#39;t necessarily use both halves.

[<kjpro]

Either you&#39;re a dumb ass, or you can&#39;t hang with the BIG DOGS.

Which is it?

[<kjpro]

They&#39;re both 240 volt products... both halves are needed for operation!

[CJT]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That&#39;s probably, but not necessarily true.