Compressor doesn't work.


  #1  
Old 10-03-05, 08:45 AM
aggieslaughter
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Compressor doesn't work.

I just got home from travel to find my compressor not working. My fan inside comes on, but I went outside and the outside unit's not even coming on at all. I checked the houses main breaker box, no problems. Checked the fusebox that's right next to my compressor outside to find a big fuse (3inX3in or so) that's capped in plastic and has a ring to pull it out with. This fuse is obviously blown. It looks like it has 4 posts on the 4 corners of the fuse and 2 of these posts have corroded or melted the plastic from on top of them.

My questions

1) Are these fuses easily found/replaced (I'm thinking Lowes should have them, but I could be wrong).
2) What should I check on my compressor before I replace that fuse? Are there any resistances I should check on the compressor with that fuse pulled out to verify that there's no short or open circuit?

A 91 degree house is just not pleasant. It still being 95 outside in october is jsut not pleasant either, haha. Welcome to Texas....
 
  #2  
Old 10-03-05, 04:47 PM
H
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,731
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sure!!!

First kill the power, take your meter and with one lead to ground, touch each of the power legs, this should be open or infinite resistance,,,... no reading! Then with your finger push the contactor in and hold it in doing the same test,... if you get resistance readings to any of these you have a short to ground, you might get lucky and snoop around and just find a burnt wire that shorted and be able to re-connect it and be fine... I have done this several times myself... if you can't find the short you can determine which item is shorted in MOST cases by default... disconnect the wires to the item and see if it's grounded. Start with the compressor, then the outdoor fan motor...
 
  #3  
Old 10-04-05, 12:33 PM
aggieslaughter
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Thanks!

I'm going to try that out tonight and let you know what I find. I've been told that it's most likely a capacitor that blew instead of a large fuse (which now makes more sense, looked like what a smaller cap looks like when it blows). I'm going to try to find where the short is, and if there isn't one, I'm hoping that just replacing that fuse will help.

I'll post my results later.
 
 

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