I had my 3HP compressor crap out and the first thing I saw was a burned up belt. Ok so 2 swings at it and I got the right belt but it wouldn't start. It was just humming.
OK probably a bad capacitor. I took off the cans and found this in one of them, the run cap.
I wasn't sure what the size should be so I threw a 25 at it to see if it was any better. Now I had nothing.
Ifter tracing the circuit back to the disconnect I remembered there were a couple of SSRs in there in addition to the 2 pole switch.
Then I found this.
I took the SSRs out of the circuit and just had the switch and it ran.
Then I played with my amp probe and my box of capacitors and the sweet spot seems to be around 30-35 MFD.
My bad belt turned into a week and I still have a capacitor in the mail. The one I had was 330v and I want 440v. Maybe it won't burn up again.
What do you think about this? What killed what?
No thunder storms or anything.

[Linked Image from gfretwell.com]


Greg Fretwell