Turn on my A/C and it just goes hummmm...
I've been having A/C anomalies this summer, which I thought I'd fixed. First, it tripped the breaker, so I cleaned the coils, changed the circuit breaker, and it ran good for a couple of weeks. But no...
Forum Discussion
It is the fan capacitor. When you push the fan to help it get going, you're actually using your hand in place of bad capacitor.
Get it now? The capacitor is only to engage the starting windings in the motor to help the main winding take over. Then, the starting winding stop cause the main winding is running it now. That's also the reason why you need more wattage at first to start ac till running watts are taking over. Same difference. Now, if you put another cap on and it still doesn't start the motor then, the starting winding in motor could be burnt. That's another process to diagnose. I have yet seen a bad starting winding so far. This is just an illustration of most motors. There are some that do not have starting winding but I will only confuse you more. Just know that your hand pushing the fan is doing the job when cap is bad.
Get it now? The capacitor is only to engage the starting windings in the motor to help the main winding take over. Then, the starting winding stop cause the main winding is running it now. That's also the reason why you need more wattage at first to start ac till running watts are taking over. Same difference. Now, if you put another cap on and it still doesn't start the motor then, the starting winding in motor could be burnt. That's another process to diagnose. I have yet seen a bad starting winding so far. This is just an illustration of most motors. There are some that do not have starting winding but I will only confuse you more. Just know that your hand pushing the fan is doing the job when cap is bad.
