From Rewired


Adam

Nothing wrong here, that is just supplemental heating.


Great picture Adam thanks for sending it.

I assume you had your PPE on?

That's a great picture! Thanks for sharing it. Investigating something like this in a somewhat safer, more controlled environment can be fun, especially when you can power up from a distance. How much time had elapsed from when you turned it on until that cap blew?

Looks like a really old A/C.

Mike (mamills)

Glad you were there when this was happenning. Could have been much worse than just replaceing a ac unit. Very interesting picture. Thanks for posting it,
Steve

I thought you would all like that picture!

Mike: Originally when it failed it was running for the entire day.. I unplugged it seconds after it started shorting out.. In those pictures though it started to arc as soon as I turned the unit on and probably went for 15-20 seconds before fizzling out, and would do no more than emit smoke whenever the compressor O/L reset itself.
It is older too I am assuming its about 15-20 years old (Kenmore) but still works not bad when its not spewing smoke and fire

Steve:
Yes it could have been a lot worse but we were lucky there... Didn't have to replace the unit though... Had spare caps of the correct rating lying around. The old heap runs again!

A.D

I uh ya (speechless)

It have that Canadian favorite, (FPE) AKA Federal-Pioneer "protecting" it?

Superb shots of that burning capacitor !

Many thanks for sharing it with us.

Hmm I wonder if that "ol' heap" will resurface again here on ECN??? Maybe not a question of if, but when. Cool pic, btw.

I'm glad you reapaired it instead of just throwing it out and getting a new one. Resourcefulness is good. Great pics, BTW

I dont see any factory smoke. I must be gone already.

Bad capacitor,
Easily fixed.
Most people would just junk the whole thing.
If I'd had a dollar for every time I've changed a capacitor in any A/C unit, I'd have a good pile of money.
That and fan motors in the evaporator unit.
Cool pic, Adam!.
You must have hit the button at the right moment.

"...still works not bad when it's not spewing smoke and fire"

Probably could be said for an awful lot of people...

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 09-06-2006).]

Hey all, glad you liked the pictures.. If I ever have the oppertunity do get more like that I will do so and post them on here...

Napervillesoundtech / Trumpy: I absolutely HATE chucking something if I know I have a chance at fixing it, if its not worth repairing I will raid any good parts out of it first, thats why I just happened to have two capacitors kicking around to replace that one. A little " rewiring" and modification to make them fit, and it works good as new.
To be honest I had to find the value I needed for the compressor by "trial and error"...
Couldn't find any numbers anywhere. 35Mfd started the compressor but the current draw on the compressor was way high, a 24 Mfd brought it back to about 6A where I think its supposed to be, starts and runs fine, and the voltage rating of the cap (400V) is sufficient for what I measured with it running (380V MAX)

Found the value for the fan motor capacitor with the multimeter, that section of the original capacitor was still intact. a 5 Mfd @400V worked out just fine

A.D

Ya know what this is-- it's an old-school heat pump! it magically senses when it's too cold, and shorts itself to add heat to the room. Or not...