A look at the ICM soft start for A/C systems 

I just put one on my condenser two weeks ago. They do help with the lights dimming. I also have a Generac generator hooked to the house. Good video.

Been wanting to put one on my home unit. We had a power outage over 7 days a few months ago. Our generator wouldn’t handle the AC. So another short outage convinced me to setup a generator for the house. Also going to power the generator with natural gas as well.

Sounds good. I expect to be hearing more about these in the RV community (lots of generators, batteries, and solar).

thanks for the explanation, i have found mixed review on a soft starter. seems like its 50/50 ppl recomend and ppl that dont

If you have dimming lights on a 4 or 5 ton, these work great.

It would be nice if there was a on/off switch that you could easily access to turn it on only for generator use only, and off for utility power.

I bet if you took it apart its just a bunch of super capacitors. That would be pretty simple and cheap. When you inject VFD current/frequencies into electric motors it has a negative side effect, it induces eddy currents into the rotor and those electrical charges have to go somewhere, run on sentence, the charge finds its way to ground through the bearings and its got negative consequences. I don't think this device has the ability to be a VFD due to how much heat they produce and I dont see any heatsyncs. Grayfurnaceman thanks so much for posting. Ive got 20 yrs in the trade and Im finally working on large 2000 ton water chillers and supermarket refrigeration. Well wishes, take care. From Florida

It’s becoming a necessity for people here in Houston who need to lower the inrush for generator use. Most cannot afford the standbys.

My Fluke clamp on meter are actually sampling the current surge wave a large number of times in the crucial first few cycles of applied AC power, so that the peak value can be found. Aka INRUSH. More than what you found with MAX amps. A 3 ton is typically 70-80A inrush on newer units.

Our outside unit, right outside the bedroom window, will wake the dead when it starts. Once it's running, it's fine. I've put rubber bushings between anything metal that can rattle, which helped a ton, but there's still a mighty crack of noise when it starts. If a soft start would help with that, I'm sold, if for no other reason than so we can sleep through the night.

Over current protection, compressor power timeout, capacitor faulty. All of these are the reason why I put one on. It also helps from pulling so much amps it dims lights

Good info G - Man ... Thx

Those would be ideal for operating on a generator. Save lugging the motor when it fires up but I’m with you the new intron meters used here are too fast to log a load anyway. They don’t seem to miss much and the AMR meters are just around the corner 😢

One of mine is mounted outside. Use foil tape to protect from sunlight. Max amps is not the same as INRUSH amps on a meter.

Other purposes include reduced noise starting and much less light dimming. Most of these psc motor softstarts actually learn what level of inrush will start the motor over a period of days. So their effectiveness can get better especially when used on pressure equalizing scrolls. The cost savings of reducing a 4 second inrush is perhaps 1/10th of a penny at 0.14 cents per kwh. Assuming the utilty meter is quick enough to catch it. Unlike industrial and a few large commercial users, residential and most commercial customers are not “demand” rate charged. A high short inrush demand can ratchet up industrial base rates, but residential is fixed rates or time of day rates. Don’t feel bad for industrial, they usually start at half residential rates.

So if I got it this basically smoothes out the start up. Could be useful if you have sensitive electronics and those electrical noise reducing power supplies/ ups. If they keep having to filter out a kick from the ac could be reducing their life.

Do you think it would make a difference in the electrical bill if the electric meter was a demand meter ?

Thank you Sir. How do I bypass the Coresense on a armana for a ICM870-16A. I asked the company and they never got back to me. Is it as simple as unplugging it?

I’ve seen some use magnets to mount the soft start. What’s your thoughts on doing so?

I wonder how this compares against the micro air soft starter

perhaps compressor winding designs have improved, but what's the point when they screwed up capacitors and evaporator coils so badly?

Are these the ones that are blowing up, according to all the reviews on Amazon?

I need help!! I decided to try to install one of these myself. I open up the condensing unit panel only to discover there’s no contactor for the compressor or condenser fan. Just a transformer, run capacitor and an electronic board. Does this mean I cant install a soft starter??? Ty.

Will they work on a 2 stage compressor?

Good luck getting the ICM32. I ordered it for about a month or more. They said I would get it on the 19th of September. They took my money after they took my money. They sent me an email telling me I won't get it till mid-December. I am sure if I call to cancel the order. They will probably return my money in December. Also before I ordered. I wasn't sure of the 16 or 32. So I called. I was not able to get any support. A voice mail would come on and tell me that all support people were not there. Then it would tell me that the mailbox was full. Then would hang up on me. SO BEWARE BEFORE YOU BUY FROM ICM!!!!!!