Air Conditioning - Intermittant on/off, outside unit doesn't engage
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Skarabrae
08-10-09, 08:58 PM
Cheers,
My ac unit has been acting up the last two days:
Leading up to this I reprogrammed the thermostat to save energy during the day bringing the temp up to 80 while I'm at home by myself and then down to 75 at night while the wife is home. Since I have done this, it doesn't seem to register that it should start cooling again when the thermostat reads something ridiculous like 85.
I can engage the manual, and it blows weak cool air. Not like it should, and definately not 15-20 degrees below the room temperature. The fan and compressor outside DO NOT engage when I do this (fan not spinning, no buzzing sound).
After reading these forums all day I started taking my AC unit apart outside, realized I didn't have a clue what I was doing and put it back together. It magically started working again, but only after I manually told it to cool, then flipped it back to auto and it figured itself out.
Just now the wife was complaining it was a bit warm and sure enough, the thermostat reads 80 degrees and I'm back where I started.
First thing I did when I bought the house a week ago was change the air filter. I remember from putzing around in the attic attempting to find / clean the blower (I couldn't gain access to it to actually do it) that the manufacturer was YORK, and it was installed in 1992. (so a bit old...) The model number I got from the outside unit was CKJ48-1A shows that it's a GOODMAN unit (per google) but I didn't see goodman or any other name on it while I was outside. The house is just east of Dallas, so the unit sees some strong use in the summer and autumn.
Please assume in your responses that I know NOTHING about hvac. As aside from it costs a lot, but makes you feel good... I knew nothing before reading about AC here. And even then, most of the time I don't know what you guys are talking about :)
I have all day tomorrow to work with it. Any help would be appreciated.
Quick edit: First thing I tried in my fix was shutting off power to the unit, both at the master inside and the breaker box just above the outside unit to attempt to reset it. This did not yield anything productive.
My ac unit has been acting up the last two days:
Leading up to this I reprogrammed the thermostat to save energy during the day bringing the temp up to 80 while I'm at home by myself and then down to 75 at night while the wife is home. Since I have done this, it doesn't seem to register that it should start cooling again when the thermostat reads something ridiculous like 85.
I can engage the manual, and it blows weak cool air. Not like it should, and definately not 15-20 degrees below the room temperature. The fan and compressor outside DO NOT engage when I do this (fan not spinning, no buzzing sound).
After reading these forums all day I started taking my AC unit apart outside, realized I didn't have a clue what I was doing and put it back together. It magically started working again, but only after I manually told it to cool, then flipped it back to auto and it figured itself out.
Just now the wife was complaining it was a bit warm and sure enough, the thermostat reads 80 degrees and I'm back where I started.
First thing I did when I bought the house a week ago was change the air filter. I remember from putzing around in the attic attempting to find / clean the blower (I couldn't gain access to it to actually do it) that the manufacturer was YORK, and it was installed in 1992. (so a bit old...) The model number I got from the outside unit was CKJ48-1A shows that it's a GOODMAN unit (per google) but I didn't see goodman or any other name on it while I was outside. The house is just east of Dallas, so the unit sees some strong use in the summer and autumn.
Please assume in your responses that I know NOTHING about hvac. As aside from it costs a lot, but makes you feel good... I knew nothing before reading about AC here. And even then, most of the time I don't know what you guys are talking about :)
I have all day tomorrow to work with it. Any help would be appreciated.
Quick edit: First thing I tried in my fix was shutting off power to the unit, both at the master inside and the breaker box just above the outside unit to attempt to reset it. This did not yield anything productive.
Skarabrae
08-13-09, 11:59 AM
For anyone interested...
It turns out that the T-Stat had actually gone bad. Replaced it and everything works great now.
It turns out that the T-Stat had actually gone bad. Replaced it and everything works great now.