I have two questions: What is the average life a of run capacitor? Is "40 / 5 Mfd 440 Volt Dual Round Run Capacitor" for Payne Model #561AJ048-B? They told me 10 years ago that I have to change out my AC. Fortunately, it has been running fine each summer. However, I noticed that I have to change out my run capacitor every 2 years. Since when I installed the 3 wire hard start kit, the duration has extended an extra year which makes it a total of 3 years. I thought the installation of a 3 wire hard start kit would eliminate the need for capacitor replacement? I guess I am wrong. Usually time for a new capacitor is when there are signs of bulges at the cap or bottom of the capacitor. There is no bulge this time around. I will get a new capacitor tomorrow and will find out if it is the capacitor or the fan motor.

It doesn't happen all the time but the fan outside sometimes keeps running even though my thermostat is off (I am using Nest). When that happens, the pipe and lines leading to compressor get all frozen. So I either manually pull out the fuse and wait for few minutes until pipes are back to normal then put it back in. It sometimes stops the fan at then or it just continues to run. I also noticed the other day, banging on the cover where capacitor is located also stops the unit from running continuously. My capacitor was busted from black out couple weeks ago and was replaced, but I've had same problem even before then. Could there a loose connection somewhere? I am just afraid that it would eventually damage my compressor and cost me tons of money to replace it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.