Dull Men's Club
An unofficial chapter of the popular Dull Men's Club.
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What is the symptom that says it's the capacitor? I'm guessing it starts the compressor, so the fan runs but no cold?
the symptom is either the fan won't run, or the compressor won't run.
these are typically dual eated capacitors. eg 25/5. the 25 powers the compressor, and the 5 would power the fan. both, or one of those can fail resulting in nothing running, or the system straining to turn over
Usually they bulge and if you know what it's supposed to look like, it's quite apparent that it's dead.
The cap is what's used to provide the power necessary for the initial start, so, it that doesn't happen, it's the quick and easy thing to check (I keep a set of the ones mine takes on a shelf ... 30 for a set of 2 and 10 minutes of time to replace or a small fortune for an HVAC guy to replace)
Your inside furnace fan might still run, but, on mine at least, the outside unit fan doesn't run if the cap is dead
Pretty much anything - outside fan isn't running? Outside fan is running but air not cool? Obv it can be more, but it's a very cheap first attempt. And cheap enough to keep on hand like you do
If you have multimeter, even a cheap one will do, you can test them. there are you tube videos that can show you how to test them even with a cheap meter that doesn't have a capacitance test setting, just ohms.