Rheem Problem - What Should I Check For First? - Need Help

9 years ago

Last night I lowered the thermostat to 73 and like normal 5 seconds later the fan and compressor on the outside unit kicked on and started cooling the house. Well at about 5:00am while still in bed I noticed that the ac unit was running longer than normal, so I got up and noticed that the air was not cold coming from the vent. Having a Rheem unit I noticed that the outside unit was not as loud as normal tell me that the fan is on but not the compressor. Thinking that maybe the unit was froze up I set the thermostat to the OFF position for an hour, seeing if the lines might thaw out, and upon turning the thermostat back to the ON position I might be able to get the compressor to kick on. When I turned the Thermostat to the ON position, the outside unit fan kicked on immediately (Without the normal 5 second delay) which normally occurs.

With this information given above, what do you guys think I should check for first?

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Comments (2)

tigerdunes
9 years ago
You certainly are not going to get cool air without the compressor running.

Is it running? If not you might want to check your capacitor visually at the condenser panel control box. I do not recommend a novice checking any electrical unless they are properly trained. Cut off the electric either at disconnect or inside electric service panel.

What age is system?

That would be my starting and ending place. Then call for service.

IMO
satman858
Original Author
9 years ago
The compressor is certainly not running. By the way. I have done repairs to my AC in the past. As a matter of fact I changed the contactor about 2 months ago because it went bad. With the fan running on the outside unit, I noticing there was a buzz sound followed by a click, which shook the red and black wires coming from the house to the contactor. So it appears to me as if the thermostat is trying to send a signal to the compressor to kick on but I feel that the capacitor is possibly bad, which is keeping the compressor from kicking on.

Below is a picture of my capacitor. It looks like it might be leaking.

What do you think?
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