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When It Rains, It Pours. 128th Journal
4 years ago
This is my head.
Ugh, I am having some AC problems. The blower fan went out last Sunday, making a humming sound and not spinning. Usually that means the cap on it went out. A simple fix normally but I did smell some smoke before I was able to cut the power, so I want to replace it instead of taking a chance on it. But getting a new motor would take some time as I work during the week. But I did have the old motor that I repurposed as a fan to use when I worked on my car during those hot TeXaS summers. I used that as a temporary replacement until I get a better one.
I haven't used it for a long time so I had to search for it. It turns out to be in the back of the shed. Dug it out and used it in the AC unit. It was the same size though it a little bit f a pain of installing it. So I had the AC back... so I thought. The fan blower came on but the compressor outside did not. The contactor (a type of relay) would pulse on for a split second and clicked right off immediately. This would cycle every couple of seconds. I was able to manually push the tab on the contactor and it powered up. So it was either a bad contactor or the delay module. I bypassed the later to test it and the AC started cooling again. I decided to buy a new delay module and contactor since they are relatively inexpensive so I might as replaced the old things too.
While waiting for the parts, I noticed the fan stopping again, this time without the hum. It would then restart and then cut off a short time later. I noticed it was getting way too hot. I guess the old thing didn't like being enclosed inside the unit. When I used it as a fan, it had plenty of air around it so not to overheat. Oh well, it was supposed to be temporary anyway, just not that temporary.
Luckily the weather was cooler during the week as some rainstorms (hence the title) came through the area, coming down quite hard on some days. So I didn't need the AC during that time, giving me time to fix it. My brother has a newer motor that I was able to finally install after some doing. It seems to work... so far.
The new delay module arrived as well. I replaced the old one that I bypassed earlier. The old contactor is working but I will replace that too next weekend.
TL;DR My AC went out and I got it going again after replacing the fan blower and delay module. The rains during the week reduced temperature enough as to not it while it was broken.
I haven't used it for a long time so I had to search for it. It turns out to be in the back of the shed. Dug it out and used it in the AC unit. It was the same size though it a little bit f a pain of installing it. So I had the AC back... so I thought. The fan blower came on but the compressor outside did not. The contactor (a type of relay) would pulse on for a split second and clicked right off immediately. This would cycle every couple of seconds. I was able to manually push the tab on the contactor and it powered up. So it was either a bad contactor or the delay module. I bypassed the later to test it and the AC started cooling again. I decided to buy a new delay module and contactor since they are relatively inexpensive so I might as replaced the old things too.
While waiting for the parts, I noticed the fan stopping again, this time without the hum. It would then restart and then cut off a short time later. I noticed it was getting way too hot. I guess the old thing didn't like being enclosed inside the unit. When I used it as a fan, it had plenty of air around it so not to overheat. Oh well, it was supposed to be temporary anyway, just not that temporary.
Luckily the weather was cooler during the week as some rainstorms (hence the title) came through the area, coming down quite hard on some days. So I didn't need the AC during that time, giving me time to fix it. My brother has a newer motor that I was able to finally install after some doing. It seems to work... so far.
The new delay module arrived as well. I replaced the old one that I bypassed earlier. The old contactor is working but I will replace that too next weekend.
TL;DR My AC went out and I got it going again after replacing the fan blower and delay module. The rains during the week reduced temperature enough as to not it while it was broken.
I've even devised a method of sleeping under heavy covers during hot summer seasons by taking a thinner queen/king sized fleece/sheet and attaching it to a fan in a way that when it blows over the bed it makes a big air tent, and the constant air flow makes it super cool under the covers.
I have one of those so-called smart thermostat. It has a humidity reading but it doesn't take that into account in turning on the AC, it is all temperature based. So I often end up adjusting the setting anyway. It would be easy to program it to take account of the moisture in the air and automatically adjust the temp. Bit I digress
I do have my ceiling fan in the bedroom. But it is not the fastest. So I sometimes use a smaller supplemental fan, especially when it is super humid. One of these days I'll get a bigger, more powerful ceiling fan.
But yeah, the weather here is getting wilder and wilder. I have a feeling that summer this year is going to be even hotter. We are been in stage 2 drought alert for quite some time and I am not sure the recent rainstorms made a dent in it. April was very dry, only got some rain at the end of it and beginning of May in addition of the recent stuff. Otherwise very dry.