Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Air Conditioner -Unit working, no air from vents

Our air conditioner stopped blowing air through the vents yesterday. The unit outside the house works. We turned it off and tried it again today, after turning off the breaker & turning it back on (didn't see a problem with the breaker, just took a lucky shot to see if that did anything).

When I turned it on today, cold air began blowing through the vents, but that lasted about 3 minutes or so & it stopped blowing again. The outside unit was still running.

Any thoughts out there? Is this something a do-it-yourselfer can repair with no prior knowledge of air conditioners?

Thanks!

First: is the air handler fan running? If not, then the problem is either a bad blower motor or fan relay or other item in the AHU. If the motor is running for a few minutes then stopping, I'd guess at a capacitor failure, or bad run windings in the motor.

If the fan is running, but no air is coming out of the vents, look for ice on the larger of the two copper lines coming out of the unit. If ice is present, then you may have restricted air flow, low freon or both. (dirty filters do more damage than one would believe).

OK, maybe I should have explained that this is all new to me. Air handler fan? Where would I find that? Also, what's the "AHU"..the outside unit?

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry, we are mostly techs and tend to lapse into tech-geekese.


The air handler unit (AHU) is the box inside the house that actually moves the air through the ductwork and contains the heat transfer coils as well as the furnace or heatstrips. It contains the blower fan that does all the work and has the air filter that may clogged up with dirt that may be causing your problem.