First off, I'm very mechanically minded and very proficient with automotive A/C. I'm not so proficient with home central units. My wife has had 3 strokes in the past year so needless to say we're buried in doctors and pharmacies. Here's the problem and any advice is greatly appreciated as I'm trying to avoid if at all possible having to call in a HVAC expert due to potential worst case cost. Trane XE1100 Condenser unit. Was working and not used for some months due to cool weather here The thermostat was kept in the OFF position. When energized neither the compressor nor the condenser fan come on. The contactor worked but the points looked a bit shabby due to burning so I replaced the contactor with no improvement. My multimeter shows 120 volts to the fan motor and 2 of the leads going to the compressor show 120 volts each with the T-stat on and the contactor engaged. When the thermostat is set to COOL and the temp lowered to less than room temps the contactor in the outside condenser operates and the evaporator fan in the house also operates. The compressor and cond. fan do not. The condenser fan also rotates very freely and I make it a yearly job to thoroughly clean the condenser of dirt, milkweed, and so on. There were some bad electrical storms and power outages recently but the thermostat was turned off so I assume the comp/fan were not fried by lightning. I'm leaning toward a capacitor problem (4 of them and hopefully....) or a failed compressor and condenser fan (hopefully not). It struck me as odd that both would fail at the same time and there are no smells of burnt wiring or insulation. Anyway, I hope I provided enough info to work with and will appreciate any insight on trying to resolve this myself. Thanks in advance. :)

Hi, I have a Frigidaire LRA157MT1 whole house air conditioner with 15,100 btu's. It was stored with the sleeve off in the attic over the winter. A pesky squirrel ate through some of the black tubular foam insulation and was wondering if should try & replace where we think he ate through before installing in the window again? Thanks for any advice!