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mosleyh
Apprentice Appliantologist
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Posted: Wed Sep 3rd, 2008 00:31 |
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My main floor A/C consists of a TempStar DC90 blower/furnace unit inside and an International Comfort Products NAC236AKA1 codenser unit outside. I noticed when I got home today that the lights in the house would dim for about 1 second every 10 seconds or so. When I went out to the compressor units (upstairs one is smaller, but same make) they were both running, and cooling properly. The downstairs one was making a buzzing noise at roughly the same interval as the lights were dimming. This happened for roughly an hour after I got home, then stopped.
When power is removed from the compressor, the lights stop dimming.
I live out in the sticks a bit, and this was happening right around dinner time, which makes me wonder - Is this cause or effect? Could the power coming in from the pole cause this if it were low, or is my A/C headed toward a failure?
Thanks
Last edited on Sat Sep 6th, 2008 02:18 by mosleyh
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RegUS_PatOff
Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology
| Joined: | Sat Sep 24th, 2005 |
| Location: | Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA |
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Posted: Wed Sep 3rd, 2008 03:58 |
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mosleyh wrote: ... The downstairs one was making a buzzing noise at roughly the same interval as the lights were dimming. This happened for roughly an hour after I got home, then stopped...
Disconnect the power to that unit to see if the lights stop dimming.
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TOPPS Appliance Service
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Posted: Wed Sep 3rd, 2008 14:13 |
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| Could be time for a hard start!!!
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mosleyh
Apprentice Appliantologist
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Posted: Thu Sep 4th, 2008 02:34 |
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RegUS_PatOff wrote: mosleyh wrote: ... The downstairs one was making a buzzing noise at roughly the same interval as the lights were dimming. This happened for roughly an hour after I got home, then stopped...
Disconnect the power to that unit to see if the lights stop dimming.
It does stop it. Now what?
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mosleyh
Apprentice Appliantologist
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Posted: Thu Sep 4th, 2008 02:50 |
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TOPPS Appliance Service wrote: Could be time for a hard start!!!
Forgive my ignorance (That's why I'm here - to learn) but a "Hard Start"?
Please 'splain, Lucy.
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Pegi
Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology
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Posted: Thu Sep 4th, 2008 02:57 |
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| Sounds like your compressor is trying to start but cannot for some reason, you could have a compressor that is locked down, a compressor that has a bad start capacitor or a compressor that is grounded.....need to have someone check to see why the compressor is not starting..if you have one that is getting hard to start a "hard Start" device will give it a boost to help it start, but this will not help one that has a bad capacitor or is grounded...or is locked down...
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mosleyh
Apprentice Appliantologist
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Posted: Thu Sep 4th, 2008 03:08 |
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| The A/C is cooling properly, though. The intermittent buzzing/dimming is happening while it's running. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. Last edited on Thu Sep 4th, 2008 03:09 by mosleyh
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Pegi
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Posted: Thu Sep 4th, 2008 03:10 |
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Well, I did not know that, so I do not have a clue then what the problem might be...
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mosleyh
Apprentice Appliantologist
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Posted: Sun Sep 7th, 2008 18:43 |
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Update-
Now it isn't cooling anymore. The fan on the outside unit is running, and the lights in the house still blink when the unit's on, but there's no longer any condensation on the pipes going to the unit, and the air coming out of the top is cool, not warm as it should be.
I've placed a service call. . .
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mosleyh
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Posted: Wed Sep 10th, 2008 01:00 |
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Diagnosis was (from the repair ticket)
"Scroll compressor locked down - will replace compressor"
So the buzzes and dimming lights were somehow related to the death throes of the compressor.
The odd thing is that from the time it was cooling OK to the time it wasn't, the dimming every 10 seconds was constant. It may be that it finally died completely after having been turned off for 24 hours+ - I wasn't at home when the technician visited.
All I can say is that I'm very thankful for the AHS warranty right about now. . .
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TOPPS Appliance Service
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Posted: Fri Sep 19th, 2008 15:03 |
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If you look at your LRA [lock rotor amps] on the nameplate you'll see how many amps that puppy was pulling with a tied up compressor. 
Last edited on Fri Sep 19th, 2008 15:06 by TOPPS Appliance Service
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