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Old 08-15-2016, 07:41 AM
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Default Air conditioner fan not running
House got hot yesterday, went out and noticed that the outdoor AC unit fan wasn't spinning.

The fan motor is hot and I can hear a buzzing sound. I stuck a screw driver in there and manually spun the fan and it took off but died after about 30 seconds.

I left it off overnight and tried again this morning. Same problem. I can't even get the fan to work at all now.

Any AC guys here? Does the fan motor need to be replaced or is it possible that the capacitor is hooped?
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Old 08-15-2016, 08:12 AM
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Odds are the condenser fan motor is shot if it is smokin hot.
try spinning the fan and if it doesnt spin freely/easily then odds are the motor is shot.
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Old 08-15-2016, 08:14 AM
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Odds are the condenser fan motor is shot if it is smokin hot.
try spinning the fan and if it doesnt spin freely/easily then odds are the motor is shot.
That's what I figured. I would just hate to replace the motor and find out that the capacitor is the culprit. The hot motor tells me otherwise though..
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Old 08-15-2016, 09:53 AM
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X 2 on what crazyperch said. I replace a lot of electric motors and even if I could get one going with just a capacitor I know it wouldn't last long. The overheating will have cooked off the wire insulation in the motor windings and the thing will produce less power/ rpm while wasting power generating heat instead of motion. I'm not an A/C guy but I've replaced plently of condenser fan motors on rooftop units.
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Old 08-15-2016, 12:30 PM
cotang cotang is offline
 
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Most AC comes with a 10 year part and labor. Might wanna check into that. Else you'll have to either replace the motor or get a new one. But since you have most of the plumbing done already it should be cheaper....
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Old 08-15-2016, 01:28 PM
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Well, I went out and bought a capacitor and a new condenser fan motor. Opened up the panel to find that the new capacitor has 2 leads instead of the 3 on the original.





Any ideas if these units are interchangeable?



I started the unit up again and gave the condenser fan a push and now it's going strong... made me think that it's just the capacitor.... until.. I realized that there is zero heat coming off of the condenser. It's been going strong for 20 minutes or so now, but the vents in the house are blowing room temp air and like I said, no heat coming from the condenser outside...

Is it possible that the capacitor went at the exact same time as the compressor or another component?? Maybe the fan not working for an extended period of time while the compressor was working has caused some other trouble?
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Old 08-15-2016, 01:29 PM
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Originally Posted by cotang View Post
Most AC comes with a 10 year part and labor. Might wanna check into that. Else you'll have to either replace the motor or get a new one. But since you have most of the plumbing done already it should be cheaper....
The unit was already installed when we bought the house.. I am thinking that any warranty is unavailable to me..
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Old 08-15-2016, 01:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaberTosser View Post
X 2 on what crazyperch said. I replace a lot of electric motors and even if I could get one going with just a capacitor I know it wouldn't last long. The overheating will have cooked off the wire insulation in the motor windings and the thing will produce less power/ rpm while wasting power generating heat instead of motion. I'm not an A/C guy but I've replaced plently of condenser fan motors on rooftop units.
So the fan "running" while not spinning will have potentially overheated and damaged the motor?
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Old 08-15-2016, 05:15 PM
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OK. It's fixed. The capacitor they originally sold me was NOT a proper replacement. I had to go to a different store and managed to get a capacitor that would work. Installed it and it's all working fine. The compressor wasn't working and the fan motor was barely working. The capacitor was bulged at the top (as you can see in the first photo) which means it's shot. I thought it was supposed to look like that. boom done.
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Old 08-15-2016, 06:18 PM
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Originally Posted by canadiantdi View Post
So the fan "running" while not spinning will have potentially overheated and damaged the motor?
In my experience the possibility of this is high. You might luck out though. An ammeter would tell the tale.
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Old 08-15-2016, 08:02 PM
Weedy1 Weedy1 is offline
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The capacitor with the three leads is a dual run capacitor. It starts both the compressor (or in layman's terms "the motor") and the condenser fan motor.
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Old 08-15-2016, 09:50 PM
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The capacitor with the three leads is a dual run capacitor. It starts both the compressor (or in layman's terms "the motor") and the condenser fan motor.
Found that out the hard way lol

Thanks everyone.
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Old 08-19-2016, 05:45 PM
Weedy1 Weedy1 is offline
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Here's a reference just in case this happens to anyone in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XJm66jsM6A
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  #14  
Old 08-20-2016, 08:01 AM
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I like that video,, very informative, the AR style tattoo on her arm told me she might be a keeper, great video presenter for the Air conditioner do it yourselfer
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