It started the first time i used my A/C this summer. Iniatially the fan spinned a bit then stopped and i left it on for few hours hoping that it would restart again. I later found out that it was because the breaker tripped. So i turned it back on, the fan started but no cold air. I once noticed for brief period (half minute) the exposed pipe was frosty, and never seemed like that again ever since. it just feels cooler. I tried to turn it on and off serveral time. every time i reactivated it by turn the thermostat from hight Temp setting to low temp, one of the two breakers tripped. sometimes i couldn't even turn the breaker back on. any clue where i should look at. I noticed two capacitors inside the outdoor unit. I don't see any reset button.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Greg

 

Sounds like you have a dead short outside in the unit. If you dont know electric Call a tech to look at it . The breaker that you cant turn on right away----they get hot and that is what trips them so sometimes if they are still warm you cant reset them. And no its not a reset button you can just reset .Let it off till they look at it. ED

 

burnt wires, could be the problem. check under the cap that covers the compressor wires on the compressor itself. the line should not frost up, that is another issue....either lack of airflow (filter, dirty coil, fan inside not running) or low charge.

 

thank you guys for the response. After having communicated with a member of this forum yesterday, i did some under the hood check up lst night. here are some of the hints:

1. disconnected the wire befor the contact, found no short before the power line enters the outdoor unit.
2. the voltage before and after the contact is the same around 230 something.
3, the two capacitors seemed worked fine. I used resistence testing on a multimeter to measure the resistance and found it can be charged and discharged.(increasing resistance).
4, i did not notice any wear and tear on the wire within the hood.
5, i don't how to measure the resistance within the fan or compressor to check for short. they all seem to have some reading but not zero among different leg combinations.
6, I could not open the evaporator without disconneting the tubes.
7, the internal blower is working fine. all the vents within the house have air flow just not cold.
8, the thermostat works perfectly.
9, the breaker does not always trip each time. only sometimes.
10, i also opened the small box on the compressor where 3 power lines connect , noticed no rust or other sign of short or grounding.
11, i would estimat the temp on the thick tube to be no lower than 70 F, in the thin tube to no higher than 100 F.
12, i found no greasy leak on the area where i can see. the basement is finished, most course of tubes are covered.

I have narrowed down to two things:

1, low Freon, could be the result of possible leak.
2, poor evaporator, i doubt this would be the case. (i would still expect a higher than 120 F in the thin tube line, colder than 32 F in the thick line, right?)

Please comment.

thanks again.

Sears people is gonna come tomorrow. and i will let you guys know what they find.

 

two more thing i forgot to mention:

the filter is new, and the frosty look was only transient for about several seconds.

 

Did I miss it or not??? When you where on the compressor and all wires pulled off . Did you try any of the thermals to the case??????
That will show if you have a dead short. Not thermal to thermals that just shows the res of the windings. If you have a freon leak most of the time it is in the A coil or the outdoor coil. they use a thinner copper in them than the lines for a higher SEER ED