[New Englander]

How to remove old capacitor and not get zapped? When looking online, how to find right size replacement?

[VJBama]

Originally Posted by New Englander

How to remove old capacitor and not get zapped? When looking online, how to find right size replacement?

Take off the access panel on the outside unit. Almost always this will be in the corner access plate. The cap is marked. It will have three connections. It will be a dual run cap, a lower number, five probably, and a higher , 35, 45 or similar. Expressed like: 5/35, 5/45. The unit of measurement is micro farads, or MFD.

When you buy a replacement pass by all Chinese caps and get a USA cap.

[New Englander]

Originally Posted by VJBama

Here is a video on how to discharge capacitors. If you have made it this far in life I am confident that you can handle this task.
How To Safely Discharge Your Air Conditioner Run Capacitor - YouTube

If you are a DIYer you will likely agree that this is very simple.

The installed capacitor has go bad. It's attached to the A/C with wires connected to the top of the capacitor terminals. How do remove the wires? Do you discharge the capacitor while it is mounted to the A/C with wires removed?

[New Englander]

At my last home in TV four of my neighbors had their A/C go out. In each case it was the capacitor.

[courtyard]

When our AC was four years old, Sun Kool, as part of their semi-annual maintenance checkup, replaced our capacitor as a preventative measure. They said it was easier to do this at this time instead of waiting for it to go on some very hot day :-)

[Toymeister]

Originally Posted by New Englander

The installed capacitor has go bad. It's attached to the A/C with wires connected to the top of the capacitor terminals. How do remove the wires? Do you discharge the capacitor while it is mounted to the A/C with wires removed?

You wear gloves to hold insulated handled needle nosed pliers to remove the connectors. I discharge before removing the cap but after disconnecting the wires. I have seen HVAC techs discharge before disconnecting the wires.

You can most certainly check a capacitor, you do not need for it to fail. You do, however need a meter capable of doing that.

[New Englander]

I'd just as soon open the panel, find out what size capacitor I need, buy a new one on Amazon and replace it when needed.

[TwinTurboViper]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Sounds like a preventative maintenance agreement. I don't think these agreements are worth buying because almost nothing will prevent your AC from breaking down. It certainly would not have prevented a capacitor from failing. Also, when my AC unit fails, I like that I am not locked in to a specific contractor. I have heard that Chuck Farrell is a good contractor, but he wouldn't be good enough for me to wait a week for him to show up while I had no air conditioning.

[John_W]

Last time this was discussed on TOTV, maybe two years ago. Someone posted this as the unit that would fit Carrier compressors in TV.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XQQBRPW...v_ov_lig_dp_it

BTW, my unit's capacitor went out 4 years ago, on a unit that was 4 years old at that time. Chuck Ferrell came out and replaced it for $75. He said the capacitor was free since they have a 10 year warranty, even though Munn's installed my unit, and the $75 was for the service call.

[champion6]

Originally Posted by John_W

<snip>
BTW, my unit's capacitor went out 4 years ago, on a unit that was 4 years old at that time. Chuck Ferrell came out and replaced it for $75. He said the capacitor was free since they have a 10 year warranty, even though Munn's installed my unit, and the $75 was for the service call.

Significant information. Good to be reminded of this.