Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Cooling Problems

I had my furnace and AC replaced in January of this year with a York "Diamond 90". I wasn't familiar with York as a brand, but the contractor told me they made good units. The contractor also provided the thermostat when he replaced the heating and AC units.

We've been using the AC since April (it was a hot spring in NJ this year) without a problem until yesterday. I noticed last night that the air coming out of the duct work was cool, but not cold.

I walked outside and noticed that the outside unit wasn't doing anything -- no hum, fan blades weren't moving. Went back inside, turned off the thermostat, went down into the basement and turned off the power switch next to the furnace and then checked the breaker for the furnace and the AC. Neither breaker was tripped, but to be certain I turned them off and then back on again. Turned the switch at the furnace back on and then turned the AC back on at the thermostat.

The blower came on again. Walked back outside and noted that the outside unit wasn't on -- no hum, fan blade not moving.


Two questions:

Is York a good brand and is it unusual to have problems with a new unit? I am very frustrated, but someone suggested to me that new units are more likely to have problems within in the first 90 days.

Secondly, what if anything can I do? I have a call into the contractor who installed the unit, but given the time of year I don't know how soon he'll get back to me. I have a basic understanding of electricity and a multi-meter.

1) Open up the electrical panel and check for power and inspect the wiring for damage or overheating. Check the contactor Coil for control voltage (24 v). If the unit breaker or power were off, you would probably hear this coil humming.

2) If the power is not there or only partial, the problem is at the stat, furnace or interconnecting wiring.

3) Check the stat wiring and furnace low voltage wiring for loose connections.

4) Chances are that it is something simple like that.

5) More TESTS: Jumpering R to G at the stat will bring on the FAN. Jumpering R to Y will bring on the OD unit if the rest of the circuit is OK.

Lynn,

Thanks for your help! I had posted my question from work yesterday. My contractor had sent someone out to the house before I got home. The tech called me from the house to tell me I had a bad "contactor". He said that the original contactor was uncapped. He replaced the old contactor with a capped contactor. Everything seems back to normal.

Will In NJ

I'm bit confused, is there such thing as "capped contactor" or do you mean capped capacitor?

he is probably referring to a contactor with a cover over the points. no big difference