Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Heat pump trips circuit breaker

The outside unit of my heat pump (it is a split unit)in my house keeps tripping the main breaker in the home's main service panel. When you re-set the circuit breaker the outside unit turns on and runs normally, but only for about a minute before the breaker trips again. This is the first time the cooling mode has been used this spring, but the heat pump functioned well all winter. There do not appear to be any noticeable obstructions in the outside unit and the air filters are clean. Any ideas? Thanks.

On a guess, I would say that the compressor run winding or capicitor is where to start looking. It sounds like it gets going, then when the compressor kicks in proper, it pulls excess current.

What you can test for yourself depends on your available test tools, and comfort level around high voltage.

anyone who would lend you an amprobe?This way you could check amp draw and for correct voltage to unit.MrRonFL is correct.If you are not comfortable working with 220 volts have a friend check it for you.There are a bunch of things that could cause your problem.He also stated capacitor.This is the easiest and least costly item to replace at this point in time.If it were start cap. unit would only run for a few seconds.Sounds like run cap...If unit does not have a hard start or soft start kit I would try this also.By the way,have you tried switching back to the heat mode?Try it and see what happens.PDF

[Edited by PDF on 04-25-01 at 04:58]