A second comment. My daughter's system was tripping her breaker. A major AC repair company in town told her she needed a complete new system. Reason he gave was very vague. Something about a leak in the system causing rust in the Freon lines????? I told my daughter get a second opinion. This co. had just installed that system about ten years ago. Someone she knew from the office she worked in came and looked the system over. Turned out, there was a Freon leak. He fixed the leak, recharged the system, charged her 700.00 just for the gas cost. The co. wanted 14.000.00 to replace the entire system. Needles to say, that air conditioning company will never see another job from me, my family, or any of my friends.
Oh wow. Yeah, that is quite the difference in estimates! 700 to fix and recharge is a very good price. Usually it would go over 1000 easy. Glad to hear it all worked out so well! Thank you for sharing! Stay cool :)
You should put their name up to identify the rip off artists hacks and really let pay back come full bore should be put out of business hitting ppl like that trying to get by in life
Thank you, it may sound funny but I encountered this problem today and I didn't know what the problem was, I'm a technicians helper, the technician didn't troubleshoot the way you did he just said that the compressor was the problem, but didn't give me further explanation, so thank you now I know how to test the compressor and the possible problems, really appreciate it.
One thing I'd like to add; I've noticed, some, not all, outside units are located near, if not right next to the clothes dryer vent which really loads up the condenser with lint causing problems. Excellent videos; very helpful.
I didn't know which solution from this video to try first for my AC, so I just blended a few of 'em together all in one go and it's somehow working again. Thanks for the super informative video man!
One word of advice, if your condenser is tripping your breaker remember to ALWAYS restore power from the breaker. If you take out the pull out switch/disconnect, then reset the breaker and then put back the pull out switch you risk sparking and burning the contacts in the pull out switch if there is a short in the condenser. Then you may need to also change the disconnect box on top of fixing the condenser. I am used to cutting power/restoring power to the condenser using the pull out switch so I learned that lesson the hard way.
@@lvgirl9405 You are NOT lying. A/C guys who really know their business are few and far between. A lot of them know less than I do about electricity, and that is scary.
Same arcing and damage occurs to the circuit breaker when you close it on a shorted circuit. Best to locate and clear the fault using your meter, before you energize the circuit at all. Circuit breakers are designed to clear overloads and faults, not as a tool for locating them.
Great video! It's also possible to have a wiring problem in the house that trips the breaker, that happened to me. When I installed my mini split last year I needed to install a dedicated circuit, so I ran 10 gauge Romex from the electrical panel to the disconnect box. The breaker tripped the second I turned it on. After realizing that it still tripped the breaker with the disconnect out, I realized that the new Romex I used was defective, one of the hots was shorted to ground and was tripping the breaker. No external damage to the cable. Weird. This could also happen if someone accidentally damages wiring in the walls or attic by stepping on it or hitting it with a screw or nail.
Missed a couple of things. One of the major causes of "hard starting" is a bad run capacitor. This will not allow the compressor to start and it will draw "locked rotor power "which can kick the breaker .Same with the fan motor. A permanent split capacitor fan motor with a bad capacitor will run slowly or not at all, increasing the head pressure and amp draw. Another thing is short cycling, which is not allowing the pressure to equalize by having the compressor off for at least 5 minutes. Real common in the mercury stat days before electronic stats became popular with their built in time delays .Another one is loose wiring at the AC breaker in the breaker panel. A loose wire creates heat, and a breaker will falsely interpret this as excess amperage and kick the breaker. I have never heard of a dirty filter kicking a breaker. Normally this will freeze up a unit with ice but will drop the amp draw . Could be possible under these conditions to flood liquid back to the compressor and slug it (trying to compress a liquid instead of a gas) but this will generally mechanically destroy the compressor and is rare. Also this unit that you are using as an example already has a start relay and a start capacitor installed by the factory. This does the same thing as a hard start and you cant have both of them hooked up at the same time.
Thanks jay I really appreciate your help with all your videos is a valuable information and you're sharing it for free, thank you so much and GOD bless your family and you.🙏🙏👌💯
Hey thank you for this excellent video. My a/c has started tripping the breaker and I just had an HVAC tech come out. He believes that I need my breaker replaced because he said that when he went to turn it on and off that it's very loose, rather than firm. So the last reason you showed might be mine.
👍 Thanks, bro! AC tripped is breaker then my main, I thought it was toast for sure. Following your lead I checked for catastrophic failure first (seemed easiest) and I had a burnt out spade connector that worked loose and sparked itself into a grave - right on the compressor. I didn't know where to start but you saved me an emergency elec-chicken call.
Loose connections will also trip the breaker. Check them all. Especially the low voltage from the air handler to the condenser, if that is loose the contactor will start and stop the compressor with no delay. The connectors on the run cap and contactor sometimes are too loose, even brand new units. If they pull off easily, they are too loose. Squeeze them(just a little) with pliers so they will grip the tabs on the contactor and run cap.
Good Advice. Add one more thing. Check the wire at the breaker if it is Aluminum. If it is Aluminum, it may have oxide layer causing contact resistance heating. You have to disconnect the wire and sand with emery cloth keeping the wire strands covered in no-ox lube. Uncovered aluminum oxidizes instantly. Reconnect the wire and make sure it is a tight connection.
@@bhampton1969 Check the wires that are connected to your contactor in the condensing unit. Make sure they are making good connection and the contactor is opening and closing with out chatter.
hey man, thank you for doing such a great job and making complete sense ... my fau was working but things weren't cooling down... went out side compressor/fan not turning...reset breaker and compressor buzzing but no fan spin.....gave the fan a push...it spun but very solwly...so i shut off..... removed cover and discharged/removed capacitor (mounting strap was covering voltage/cap specs) my cap is 60 and 7.5 uf i could only find a 60 and 5 uf) local hvac parts houses would not sell to me without license... replaced capacitor, used tinfoil to shim the stap so it would be tight around cap..and everything is working great..... im going to order the right cap from you (60 and 7.5) and keep the 60 and 5 uf as spare... . first real hot week in socal desert so techs were swamped..90 degrees inside by noon..so you saved me on this one.. your a great teacher.... best wishes to you
Wonderful infomation from the video and comments! I now know that because my condenser froze up, that's why the breaker kept tripping. Thank you so much everyone for your help!
What would have been cool was if you had demonstrated the amp draw before cleaning the coil vs the coil caked in dirt and fluff. I wasn't aware until watching your video that amp draw would increase with a dirty coil. I knew it effected the condensers ability to remove heat from the refrigerant, but not how it effects the electrical aspect. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you very much for informative and educational AC repair video. Your vidoe is easy to understand. You are savvy on the subject, especially, you are a very generous AC technician. I hope you have lots of customers. I am near 70 years old, and I can't do most of AC repair. I am not an AC repair man, so , most my AC issues, I call an AC tech. May God bless you.
Great video. Power failure at my house yesterday. Power came back on, then went off a minute later, then came back on again. Noticed after the power came back the a/c was not blowing cold. Checked the air handler and that was running fine, went out side and noticed the fan wasn't spinning. Went into the garage checked the breaker box and saw the breaker was tripped. Went to reset it, I hear a buzz and the breaker trips, Tried it again and same thing. So shut off the breaker, pulled the main power patch out by the a/c unit. I removed the a/c access panel, noticed the capacitor was not mushroomed out, looked at the contactor switch, nothing looked or smelled burnt. Wiring looked ok with no bare wiring exposed. Don't know if it's a bad contactor, capacitor or compressor. The unit is 2013 4 ton Rheem. Have an a/c guy coming out tomorrow.
Very informative video. Gives me some ammo when the tech comes out so I know he is doing everything he is supposed to be doing. Thanks for the demonstration along with the explanations as well.
I could be wrong but I thought that having an under charge unit should not trip the breaker but trip the overload in the compressor since it's overheating due to high superheat. Great video by the way!
Enjoyed the video, one thing to be careful of though. If you disconnect the wires from the condenser fan and allow the system to run (say your issue is the breaker trips after a few minutes rather than instantly like with most shorts) you will over heat the condenser coil and compressor. If you try this step I would only allow the system to run for a very short time that way.
Great reminder for the..uh...well forget that! Good one as although you would HOPE everyone would realize they can only test without the fan running only quickly like you said, I am sure many have let it all run with no fan....."I don't need that running too do I, nah!" Someone should have thanked you by now!🤣🤣
Wow thank you soo much. I was so afraid to even touch my outside unit... But i am a handy car guy. Your video helped me to look and see that mice or chipmunks have chewed wires causing a short to the compressor.
Thank you for this great video. When the air filter is plugged, the tripped breaker will be the one for the indoor unit since the indoor fan will draw higher amperage . You were showing the reasons for tripped breaker in the condensing unit. Am’I correct or wrong ?. I will appreciate your comment .
Yes you are right. A very dirty furnace filter would trip the furnace breaker but if that breaker trips, then the outside unit wont work as well. I said it wrong in the video, I thank you for correcting me :) Although, the dirty filter itself would not trip a breaker as that would actually lower the amp draw, it might cause something else to trip it though. I probably should have left the furnace filter out of this lol
You have been an excellent huge help for two reasons. One my Subaru wrx has a faulty compressor and has been leaking and drawing to much power causing power loss in other areas. And two my rv compressor is tripping the breaker, so I will test some of the quality bits of info you described here and let’s see if I can get to the bottom of this!!! Thank you a thousand!!!!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Solution: my ac (independent) breaker was triping after 15min , I removed the breaker , there was a screw behind the switch which adjusted its sensitivity if I unscrew it , it was tripping easily , so I tightened it , then I attached it's all 4 wires in different way , by cleaning the ends and reshaping them just in case , tightened all 4 again , it stoped tripping ! . (turn off all the power supply 1st)
I watched your video and it’s very educational and informative. I believe I have a short in the compressor. Whenever I turn on the unit a spark flies out of the compressor Junction box, tripping the breaker, I’ve replaced the wire twice which burned out, so my analysis concluded that the compressor wiring must be shorted out. My question, my unit is 18 years old ,good men, should I replace the compressor? Or should I replace the entire unit? Mind you, I’m in New Jersey and a complete new unit is roughly $2300. Don’t know how much a new compressor will run for with labor.
Typically if a unit is over 15 years old, it is not worth replacing the compressor. And if it's an R22 system, you may not even be able to find a new compressor for it since that refrigerant is getting phased out. If you have a multi-meter, I have a video on how to check the compressor if you want to double check it. (I don't remember if I go over that in this video) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0aAj0iqP95A.html
When all else fails @Word Of Advice TV, check the main breaker box. Just had to replace a ladies main breaker box, because the lugs the breakers slide on, were melted like welding. Just another tool for the box.
I just got useful tips from this video. I wasn't working on a large unit, but rather a portable unit. The principle is the same. Turned out breaker (20A!) Was tripping due to compressor not being cooled adequately. I added a fan blowing on the out side of the housing, near the compressor That brought the total current under 10 amps, even after several hours continuous use. I have a feeling the thermal switch at the top of the compressor is not working.
@Tim Jacuzzi how is uei overpriced garbage lol. I use a field piece hs36 but uei is probably the best bang for your buck. Checks everything you need and you can get em on eBay new for 100 or less.
Thank you for this video. Had already replaced my capacitors and the contactor. Breaker has been tripping. Fan has also not always been running though I can hear the compressor humming. Added the rapid start and waiting to see if that helps. Hoping not to have to replace the fan, though it seems to run smooth. Maybe it is getting overheated. Going to clean the condenser coils also.
I ended up changing the fan motor on the condenser and ruined the fan blades trying to remove. Had to get a new fan too along with the hub. Then I put the fan blades on upside down. Cooling well now and not as well when the blades were the wrong way. They should mark them somehow.
Dude the dude thank you I have so many more things to test for before I call the technician and all the technician is going to say by this or have me fix that now I know what the technician might actually want to fix
I know fluke meter are great but those UEI are underrated. I bought one back in 1995 when I first started AC work and still use it today. Unbelievable its lasted this long. Back then it was about half the cost of a fluke multimeter and I didn’t have to buy a separate clamp on amp meter.
I hope everything goes well for you to move to Hawaii... I picked up a lot of good things from your videos J, I hope you continue to send out the videos I'm sure there's a lot of people like me that enjoy them I can't wait to see your next one when it comes out thanks for all you do...mike.
Did resi installs for 8 yrs and made the jump to service about a yr ago and you videos are really helpful. Can you do a few on Air Handlers and heat pumps? Im in K.C and they are super common here
My 2 CENTS: a retired hvac friend told me sometimes the ac circuit breaker just goes bad. My a/c kept shutting off, no cold air. You would find the electric breaker blown. Reset, it would run for about 5 minutes, and trip the breaker. I replaced the electrical breaker in my main box, and I have not had one problem this hot July. I thought my hvac friend was full of it, but he was right it worked !!!!
Thank you for sharing! Good to have friends like that! :) I have only seen that once so far. (the AC breaker in the breaker panel was slightly melted and cracked)
My breaker intermittently trips after several hours and had already replaced but still tripping after working long hours say 5 or 6 hours. What could be the problem. Can I run the AC with compressor only without the condenser fan? I appreciate your input.
Running your compressor without the fan will cause the pressures inside of the compressor to build up and it will overheat. That in turn will increase the amp draw of the compressor which could cause your breaker to trip. Does your fan stop running after a while? Do you have a multi meter that you could check your capacitor with? It could be a weak capacitor. The first thing I would do is thoroughly hose down/clean your condenser coil even if it looks clean. A plugged coil also increases amp draw.
Thank you, i was able to solve my daughters problem with her compressor being bad. Now my unit is acting up. Lol. My outside unit has a seperate breaker than the unit in my attic. unit in attic runs fine until it gets hot outside and trips breaker. Runs all night, until temperatures climb.
My heat pump (only three years old) trips the breaker some times in 20 minutes some times in 1 or 2 hours when running the cooling. Filter is changed, cleaned the outside unit (it was fine before as well), air vents are not clogged. Any suggestion what I can look for to resolve this issue?
Thanks man For the Hvacc tips Are a pro. Can you make a video or how to check bad blowers using different methods? And i have to say electricians are very skilled people.
Excellent video! I'll be looking at a few of these things tomorrow. One thing I'll add is that you might have shown how the disconnect paddle works rather than pointing to it. Many will not know anything about that item. I think the fear of the electrical box it is in will scare them but the troubleshooting you describe is safe for even novices, once they realize how to safe the equipment.
Sir what is the time interval of an ac that keeps tripping? I don't want to leave the customer and then I get a call back cause it tripped again. Thank you, I will start supporting your channel once I get hired and work in the field. Lol
I don't know if I understand the question.. So the breaker is intermittently tripping? Runs for various lengths of time? If it's intermittent then those usually take some digging into to figure out.. Could be a bad run or start capacitor, could be a loose/burnt wire somewhere, a defective delay board, etc..
@@WordofAdviceTV Ive rewatched your video, and from your reply basically what you were trying to say is to check through almost everything on the outdoor unit, the wirings and the capacitors so that you wouldnt have a call back. I greatly appreciate your time in replying my newbie questions. Thank you very much!!
@@FighTinSlowMo Intermittent problems are hard to deal with.. I usually explain that to the customer and let them know that I checked everything on my end and am not finding anything wrong. It is hard to fix something that is working... So I will have to call it good for today and ask you to call again if the problem returns. Another thing that could be causing this is the wiring in the disconnect or sometimes the circuit breaker for the AC is going bad, is cracked, or melted..
Your videos are great, I been working on my AC for last 4 yrs my unit is 28 yrs old and still cooling our house great. Every yr we have heatwaves for weeks at a time and usually at that time the capacitor seems to go or a wire is burned up. Needless to say I keep some on hand at all times. This year it’s different it’s been brutally hot for weeks and the AC is not getting a break. Sat it was 103 and it stopped running so I noticed a wire from cap to contactor was burnt and I went out and bought a new wire to replace it with. Also I tested the capacitor and it was bad so I replaced it as well but no luck and I noticed I was not getting 240 volts at the contractor. The breaker has 240 volts going out so next step was to check the fuses in my disconnect box. Of course one was dead so I replaced it and the new one died an hour later. I thought ok maybe it was a bad fuse and I replaced it again and 36 hrs later it’s bad again. Back to troubleshooting tomorrow your video is so helpful I now know what could be causing the fuses to blow. I hope this works and it’s not my compressor! Thank you for your informative vids
My unit trips the breaker on the hottest days it seems, sometimes randomly. I’ve had an AC person out about it a few times over the years and they said everything is fine and see no issues. It still does it and did it just now our first real hot day of the year. Guess I’ll look into cleaning it, but this has been happening since we bought the house 20 years ago. The air stays blowing inside but is no longer cold.
In really hot days we do have high pressure problems due to outside heat. I'm not sure if it's wise to install something to provide shade for your outdoor unit but that could solve the problem (make sure you don't restrict air flow)
When did you change the run cap last? If its more than 4 years, time for a new one. These caps are very sensitive to ambient. At higher temps, the high pressure is also higher, so an aging compressor could be drawing more amps. You can check the draw with a clamp meter.. which will give you a little better insight.
@@WordofAdviceTV On this clip, Who is doing the video, maybe your wife or your kids. ??? Thanks for your help and sharing instructions and teaching. God bless you and your family 👍👍👨👩👧👧
Thank you for your nice video. Here is my situation. Hope you give me a good advise The breaker was always tripping. I opened the AC unit and found the incoming grand line was disconnected. I reconnected it and turned on the braker. No tripping and I heard a roaring sound from compressor for 30 seconds and stopped since the braker was tripped. Then, I disconnected 3 wires to the compressor from contactor & capacitor, then turned on again. No tripping and no sound. Next, I turned on the thermostat. I saw the small spark from contactor and the braker was tripped. Finally, I tried to disconnect the cable on compressor side after removed the top fan but in vain , too tight. I scratched the top paint and connected to 3 wires one by one by volt meter as you did. All are not contacted. (may not be accurate) The compressor may be good. I don't understand 1.Why the compressor is started when braker is on although the thermostat is off. 2.Why the braker is tripped when the thermostat is on after disconnected the compressor. Do you think that the problem is the fan or capacitor?
I suppose it's possible but I have never seen that happen before. The thermostat is on the 24v circuit and the circuit breaker is for the 240v circuit.. So usually the low voltage side wouldn't cause a breaker to trip. But it if it's causing the unit to go off and on then I could see how that could happen.
What about the fan in the air handler shorted. Also the on/off switch at the air handler shorted. And one of the two 120V feed wire insulation missing and shorted.
I watched your capacitor and contactor video, replaced them and ran all summer great so thank you. Now in heat pump mode (which it did okay all winter until Feb 25th 2020)when the outside unit fan comes on I am hearing a light fluttering noise (the only thing I can reference) and compressor would not start after numerous times it did this, so the outside unit would shut down and then the outside unit would restart and then the compressor would come on immediately. Now it is blowing the inside fuse and when you try and reset a huge spark inside the fuse box. I am now running on the emergency heat from the inside unit. I don't know any companies I can trust to look at it. Help please. Have not tested anything yet as I do not have a ohm tester.
