HI All, The AC quit blowing cold and the cooling fan over top of the condenser coils is no longer turning. The fan turns (by hand freely) but the base of the Fan is SUPER HOT. Could the solution be as simple as replacing the fan? The unit is 17 years old. Any help would be appreciated. Best regards, Mike
Hi Brad, Is that part of the motor or a separate element? Any idea why is the motor so hot? So hot any thermal protection would have tripped? Thanks Brad! Mike
I am NOT an AC service tech. A capacitor help start an AC motor by dumping, if you will, a jolt of electricity to get it going. Without that jolt, the motor will usually just sit there not moving and get very warm, like you described. It (the capacitor) is wired in with the motor but you'd have to know where it is on your unit.
There are several pro's on here, so hopefully they will help out. It could just be a short in the windings of the motor that turns the fan. this would make it hot and stop it from turning? I would think this would cause the breaker to blow though...
I'm with Brad on this one. Most units are capacitor start for the motor. I just did these on mine (25 year old York) last year. My unit had two capacitors, one start, one run I believe. I went ahead and splurged on a new one of each, and a new fan motor. Cost me $150 and two hours of my time. Hardest part was fighting the mosquitoes and getting the fan blade off of the motor without destroying it. Probably could've gotten by with just the start capacitor.
Capacitor is the #1 cause, it could be something else as suggested. Don't fry your motor, keep unit off till you get that Cap replaced. If you don't there there will be a cascade of failures later.
Try the capacitor first. It's probably thermal cycling. There's a TCO (thermal cut off) built into the motor, without which you house would have caught on fire by now. https://www.ebay.com/itm/271542893719?hash=item3f3937bc97:g:4-MAAOSwbqpTu2Ry
Heres the basic first test that I use when walking up to a probable bad out door fan motor. Check if its hot.. If cooking pull the power and cool it off. it has an internal high temp limit switch. Once cool put the power back to it and once the compressor starts try to spin the fan with a stick or screw driver. If it takes off... bad cap. If not probably a motor. This is what the capacitor looks like. You may have a smaller oval one that runs the fan. 8-10 times the cap will look blowed up like the one on the L. The value is written on the label and will say something like 45/5 UF. 45 runs the compressor and the 5 is your fan
Three things were replaced..Contacts, capacitors and something else. I thought it was Steep but it's working and my wife and daughters are very happy so oh well.
No fan mtr for nearly 600$ I'd be in around 200$. Probably need to raise my prices. As long as your "cool" with it.. (see what I did there?)
On my old Goodman unit, I had a box of capacitors that I had to replace every couple years (I could do it for about $25 versus the crazy service repair cost). Replaced the whole system with a Trane when the compressor finally burned up. New Trane started crapping out on me after about 3 years. Found out the guy who installed it didn't run the power supply into the unit correctly, so tree frogs were able to climb up into the unit and short everything out. Service tech re-wired it so the frogs couldn't get back in and it has been running fine ever since.
Had a call on a newer trane. Nothing running. checked and found the 3A low voltage fuse popped. Replaced it and it popped again. Started tracing the short which led me to the outdoor unit. Took off the compartment cover to find a snake had somehow gotten in there and wrapped himself around the contactor and behind the defrost control board. pretty much burned in half. STINK wow. That snake caused nearly every part of the low voltage system to fry. Had to pick it out in pieces with needle nose pliers.
Gross Had a similar issue a few years back, 90 plus day, a/c wouldnt start, checked fuses, all good, shut breaker off, took cover off unit, the paper label inside the unit was all torn and tattered, found a piece of the label between in the contactor, AAHAAAA! All was good after that. Then I remembered the dogs always digging/fussing by the unit in the gravel, CHIPMUNKS
