Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Puffy Capacitor

 It is the hottest week of the Summer so far.  This is very stressful on your Environmental Control System.  Hotter Temperatures means the pressures go up, and the system runs a lot more.  These conditions will cause weak parts to fail.

Look at the terminals on this capacitor.  They are angled outward.  They should be parallel.  This is a visual indicator that this capacitor is bad.  It's "puffy" which in this case means that it has failed open.  When it is open no current flows.  In this case it is a Motor Run Capacitor.  With no current flowing to the Fan Motor, no air moves.  This was the Blower Motor Run Capacitor in the interior Air Handler.  We noticed that the house was getting warmer last night, and discovered that the Air Handler wasn't blowing cold air.  The Compressor, and Condenser Fan were running.  I did a little debugging last night, and found this Puffy Capacitor.  This morning I replaced it, and had the Air Conditioner running before the Sun got high...  Crisis averted...

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