When my lights started to momentarily flicker when my new A/C would come on, I called the installer about it. He said they could come out and install a "fast start" or "quick start" device to stop the flicker. Has anyone ever heard of this? If so, will it have any long term harm to my A/C or electical system? I guess I might be at the limit of my electrical service and was wondering how I could really figure that out.

A "quick start" device is really nothing more than a capacitor. What does it do( and more appopriately - How do it know? ) it smooths out the distortion in the phase angle variance when a single phase motor starts up. You see lights flicker because their perfect little 60 cps world has just been altered. Long term harm, Yep, but you won't live that long.

i have been in the electrical and refrigeration industry for 10 yrs now and have never herd of a "quick start" i have herd of and used many "hard start" devices however i have never seem them used in this way.they are wired across the compressor capacitor terminals to raise capacitance on compressors that trip the O/Ls during start up.also i have read you can raise capacitance up to but no more than 10% without any long term damage to motor windings.post back and let me know how this works in reducing the flicker effect which by the way is a very common problem.

My two cents:

I think we're all on the same page here, but I thought they were called "Soft Start" devices (Maybe just a local marketing term)

Bill

OK, nothing stops the "flicker" effect of a single phase compressor coming on, the Hard start, quick start, soft start whatever you wanna call it kits are meant to reduce phase angle corruption at the unit, for the unit. period = HOWEVER, some manufacturers contend that by making the adjustment at the source of the problem, you reduce the problem away from the source. It will not injure your wiring system, it will only have effect on appliances or devices which are being utilized at that moment, like I said, he ain't gonna live long enough to notice any failures from this minor distortion.

Just make sure that you aren't buying a bill of bull!!

Capacitors are cheap. Don't go buying a new condenser that's "Y2K compliant, quick start, energy saving, as seen on TV...etc." without really assesssing your needs
I once knew a refrig. contractor that would sell an installation kit for a capacitor for $42. The kit consisted of 2 orange wirenuts and a 6-32 screw. (worth at net about 20 cents)

man, seasoned tradesmen chewin' the 'terminology' rag.
someone could write a book with all the lingo that comes thru this forum...