I got a chance to test my unit finally. If I turn my A/C on, the fan comes on; and the compressor seems to come on. I made sure that the compressor actually comes on, by very briefly disconnecting the fan. Because of all the noise it's hard to identify where sounds might be coming from. So with the fan disconnected, the compressor is humming (it's not too loud, but it's not faint either). I actually let it run for a couple of minutes, to check if the overload would shut it down, but it never did. Now the humming, does not sound as strong as my neighbor's identical unit, but I understand that's not an accurate way of testing. I checked both the run capacitor (dual), and the start assist capacitor and they both visually look ok. Is there an electrical test I can do to make sure they are ok? Is it a lost charge? Wouldn't there usually be frozen pipes if there is low coolant? My pipes are fine. Could it be the start capacitor not providing enough for the compressor to turn on properly? Or could it be the run capacitor is good on the fan side, but not on the "herm" side? Thanks for any help, CFC

I have a 13 year old two-story house with a split heat pump for 2nd floor and a packaged heat pump for the first floor. Both units are Heil. This past weekend, the AC was on upstairs with setting at 78 degrees. I went upstairs in the late afternoon and noticed it was hot. I checked the thermostat and it was showing 80 degrees. The unit had been on all day. I felt the registers and there was barely any air coming out. I pulled the filter and there was barely any air going in. I could hear the blower running in the attic and the compressor fan was running outside. I turned the unit off and left it off for the rest of the night. I got up the next morning, went into the attic, cycled the circuit breaker on the AHU, removed the access panel so I could see the fan, and then turned the unit back on. It came on and was blowing fine now so I put the access cover back. Now air was coming out of the registers but it was warm. I went outside and the compressor fan was running but the top and bottom freon lines were both ambient temp. I let it run like this for a few hours and nothing changed. I turned the unit off again for 3 hours, then turned it back on with setting 78 (temp reading was 81 now) and now the air felt colder coming out. I checked the freon line and it was cold now and water was coming out of the drain pipe. It took 2 hours to lower the temp to 79 degrees and another hour to get down to 78 degrees. My question is if the freon is low, why would the unit cool one time and not another? Also, is the fact that the blower gradually put out less and less air completely separate from the cooling issue? It seems like I'm dealing with a failing blower motor and a compressor that is on its last leg.