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Heating & Air Conditioning

Out of curiousity, what happens when AC compressor runs w/o fan?

13 years ago

Here's a little background... My wife and I have always enjoyed shutting off the AC and having our windows open on cooler, breezy evenings. (we live on the coast quite close to the sea)The house next door to ours has an aging, rough looking AC condenser that has always been aggravating to have to listen to because it sounds like a lawnmower without a muffler whenever it is running. Well, in the crummy economy, the house got bought and sold, and finally foreclosed, and hasn't been occupied in a couple years. Several months ago it seems a bank or someone else had some work done on it, and they locked it up months ago and haven't been back, but left the AC running. Long story short, this things been sounding rougher and rougher lately, and has been running nearly all the time, leading me to believe it's finally on its last leg. Recently the condenser fan has been running slower than usual, and finally stopped a couple days ago. Still, it chugs on, in fact, I think it's been running continuosly for about 72 hrs now like that. Can't be sure, because I've been away from home a lot, but it seems every time I'm in my den on that side of the house, I can hear it roaring away, (the fan still isnt turning) and everytime I'm coming or going it's running. It seemed extremely hot like the muffler on a car after a long drive the day I walked over and took a look and saw the fan had stopped. I'm actually kinda hoping it'll buy the farm soon so if they ever sell that place they'll have to put a new one in and I won't have to listen to that rattletrap anymore every time our windows are open.

Comments (2)

veesubotee
13 years ago
I'm surprised that the electricity hasn't been shut off.

In any event, the unit may very well fail soon, but you can easily disable it. Where the electrical service connects to the a/c, there should be a disconnect box within a few feet. This is a thick wire or plastic conduit.

It is either a lever switch (turn to off), or you open the door and pull the handle out, reverse it, and put it back in. The unit is now without power.

You might be violating trespassing laws, but I think the bank will thank you.

V
parrothead_fa
Original Author
13 years ago
Update: After running for 8 days w/o the condenser fan, I hear it no more, so I think the compressor finally locked up. It was sounding really ragged near the end, kinda like a small engine running with no oil. Whereas I would never intentionally destroy anyone else's property, having that old earsore of an air conditioner finally bite the dust through someone else's negligence isn't going to make me shed any tears. In any case, there was a huge yellowjacket's nest inside that electrical disconnect box, and I wasn't going anywhere near it, I'm allergic to wasps.
Dave
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It's probably too cold. Remove the front louvered cover to expose the cap tube. The one from the stat. remove the rubber bumper from the front coil and pull the cap tube from the rubber. Hold the cap tube in your hand until you feel that the tube is pretty warm. then turn the unit on. How long does it run ? If the stat is a snap action one find yourself a portable heater with a fan, an old car warmer will do. Have it pointed to the area of the stat. Let it get good and warm. How long does it run ?
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I too thought it was the cap. Pulled it out and was about to go get another when I recalled the cap was only a year old. So I pulled the cap out of my other a/c unit and put it in the non working unit and it still did not start. Then I started to trace circuits and tested each leg of the contactor to ground and saw 120v on both legs, so I thought it was fine and kept looking for another reason. Finally it dawned on me I never tested between the two legs for 240v and sure enough no 240v. I had been seeing backfeed on one of the legs. Turned out the issue was a burned out contact point on the contactor. Replaced the contactor for $19 and all is fine again.
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Extremely unlikely because as the guy said... eventually the unit starts and runs fine. Voltage drop = no run. "If voltage drop occurred while unit was running... it would not stay running." No where does OP say anything about unit cutting out while after starting and running. You have to know what you are talking about to come to such conclusions. LOL. Does a car keep running if there is no gas? Can a car be hard to start, but then run fine once started? Yeah ok, common sense. While a car is a poor comparison more people understand the operation of a car than anything else I could use as an example. voltage drops tend to stay, not magically disappear and reappear. But thanks for playing.... In over 22 years of diagnosing only 1 voltage drop problem... if you have a voltage drop you will know it quite easily. (More complex problems in regards to start up? Uh no. Guess again and again and again.) More common to drop a leg from the pole... while also rare that's happened about half dozen times in 22 years of running service. Central AC Unit won't start with only 120v available, that confuses people because some things inside the house will still operate normally as long as it doesn't require the full 240v to operate. In Vegas, they give you odds... in a forum board that's also what I give. Magic 8 ball --- out.
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