Watched a guy take out a window unit and replace it with a new one. Put old one out at the curb for scrap, so I picked it up.. a challenge to see if I could make it work.
It's a 2003 18,000 btu 220vac Sears. Digital, pushbutton control panel. It was a middle aged lady's, and it was basically clean... no dust in the filter... everything clean.. the condenser face that the fan blows on had some corrosion and the 2 condenser coil/case attachment points were rusted apart..but anyway...
First thing I did was plug it in, push the Cool button and the compressor tried to start, the overload clicked and shut that down... and the fan just hummed.
I pulled it's 35/6 370vac capacitor and replace it with one that wasn't an exact match. I think it was 30/3.5 or something like that.
Turned unit back on... compressor started right up, as well as the fan~ but the fan spun the wrong direction. The fan motor is a 220 volt motor, and was not the reversible type.
The only other cap I had was way larger in numbers (can't remember~ maybe 60/8 or something like that.. but, anyway, both motors started up and the fan ran the right direction with it. I'll go buy a O.E. part replacement when I get a chance. I don't think the machine had ever been taken apart or had any parts changed.
I let the unit run for a while and checked the running amps. I'm not there looking at it right now, but it seems like the data tag said the cooling amps were 9.5... It ran at that figure for about a minute or two... then it climbed up to the 10.5 to 10.7 range, and then I stopped the test run.
It was blowing cold air.. blowing heat out the condenser, but the darn compressor was getting reallly hot, in my estimation.
I know it's not an ideal situation to be testing it in... setting on the tailgate of a truck setting in the 97 degree heat... but the fact that the running amperage was that high and the compressor was so hot makes me question whether something's not right with the refrigerant charge or it was just the wrong conditions to be running the unit and expecting it to function properly?
So, my question: would the "too small" cap cause the fan motor to spin the wrong direction like that?
Not sure if I want to keep this thing or not, but a capacitor is small change to replace in the big scheme of things.. but without putting it in a window in a room and letting it run for a long time to see if it calms down and doesn't catch fire...I don't see any way to verify it's worth keeping.
There are no old school heat and air guys left around here who would take the time to put on some test ports to check the freon charge in this thing, so....
It's a 2003 18,000 btu 220vac Sears. Digital, pushbutton control panel. It was a middle aged lady's, and it was basically clean... no dust in the filter... everything clean.. the condenser face that the fan blows on had some corrosion and the 2 condenser coil/case attachment points were rusted apart..but anyway...
First thing I did was plug it in, push the Cool button and the compressor tried to start, the overload clicked and shut that down... and the fan just hummed.
I pulled it's 35/6 370vac capacitor and replace it with one that wasn't an exact match. I think it was 30/3.5 or something like that.
Turned unit back on... compressor started right up, as well as the fan~ but the fan spun the wrong direction. The fan motor is a 220 volt motor, and was not the reversible type.
The only other cap I had was way larger in numbers (can't remember~ maybe 60/8 or something like that.. but, anyway, both motors started up and the fan ran the right direction with it. I'll go buy a O.E. part replacement when I get a chance. I don't think the machine had ever been taken apart or had any parts changed.
I let the unit run for a while and checked the running amps. I'm not there looking at it right now, but it seems like the data tag said the cooling amps were 9.5... It ran at that figure for about a minute or two... then it climbed up to the 10.5 to 10.7 range, and then I stopped the test run.
It was blowing cold air.. blowing heat out the condenser, but the darn compressor was getting reallly hot, in my estimation.
I know it's not an ideal situation to be testing it in... setting on the tailgate of a truck setting in the 97 degree heat... but the fact that the running amperage was that high and the compressor was so hot makes me question whether something's not right with the refrigerant charge or it was just the wrong conditions to be running the unit and expecting it to function properly?
So, my question: would the "too small" cap cause the fan motor to spin the wrong direction like that?
Not sure if I want to keep this thing or not, but a capacitor is small change to replace in the big scheme of things.. but without putting it in a window in a room and letting it run for a long time to see if it calms down and doesn't catch fire...I don't see any way to verify it's worth keeping.
There are no old school heat and air guys left around here who would take the time to put on some test ports to check the freon charge in this thing, so....