Air Conditioning - A/C Fan moving, but house is not cooling

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fadingstarlight
06-06-06, 09:56 PM
I am a new owner to this home and moved in last fall when A/C was not really necessary and it was only running for about 2 weeks. All seemed well.

I have a Carrier Series 38 Condensing Unit, a White-Rogers Thermostat Model 1F80-54.

At the end of the summer I was told to flip the little red switch outside on the unit to OFF for the winter.
Now this summer I switched on the little red botton to ON and left it for 24 hours as was instructed by the previous owners note.
After 24 hours, I went to the thermostat and clicked COOL and AUTO.
I changed all the programs to be about 50'F (10'C) to try and just cool everything off but so far nothing is working.

The fan outside is spinning, but there is cold air coming from it. I believe it should be hot air.
The vents in the house are all open and if you feel them there is cool air coming from it. Not cold.. just cool.
Last year it was freezing air coming out.

I have no manuals and can't seem to find anything on the net.
I am really a novice when it comes to this sort of thing and would appreciate any help. :)


mdtaylor
06-07-06, 05:40 AM
You have an open circuit to your compressor, either at the contactor, wiring between the contactor and compressor, or internal to the compressor.

There is a limit switch internal to the compressor that may have tripped. You will need to turn the unit off for quite a while and allow the switch to reset itself. As much as several hours. Then have someone turn in A/C on while you are standing there. You can hear if the compressor attempts to start. It might attempt to start then trip that internal switch.

There may also be a limit switch on the freon to prevent the compressor from starting but normally it will also prevent the fan from running so I think you can rule that out for a while.

A less expensive and more common problem might be that your contactor is not fully contacted, allowing the fan to come on but not your compressor.

I would also open up the panel on the condensor unit and visually check for burned wires and especially wires that may be burned completely off of a connector.

Start with that and let us know what you find.

agnes
06-07-06, 03:35 PM
My AC wasn't cooling. Using a leak detector, I find an extremely tiny leak right before the blower inside the basement. How do I cap this invisible leak. After a few minutes, a little tiny oil appears on the copper pipe. It's almost invisible. should I solder or use marine epoxy? Since I don't want to cut and then joing the pipe, how do you solder this issue? Is there anything out there that I can buy to fix this tiny hole?

Thanks in advance for helping me!

Agnes