Well, crap. Hello and welcome faithful reader. I am in the throws of reliving a bad dream from 7 years ago. Picture it, July 2015, hottest summer on record. Neighborhood air conditioners were cranking and running day and night, ours was no different. Well, the wife remarked that it was kinda muggy in the house. I agreed and decided to do some trouble-shooting. Breaker tripped? Nope. Cooling fan stopped by object? Nope. Overheated? Maybe, but doubtful. Time to dig deeper. I pulled the cowling off to check the internal wiring, not that I know what I am looking for but it was worth a shot. Low and behold the answer was staring back at me with bulging eyes. The onboard capacitor was swollen and distended like a can of soda that has been shaken by a young kid learning about pressure and physics. I reached out to several heating and cooling companies and they wanted $300 just to come out and troubleshoot, never mind the $50-$80 for a replacement capacitor! Well, that’s just crazy!
So, I decided to fix it myself. Well, a simple Amazon search and $20 later, I had the replacement on the way. I thought that let’s start here and if it doesn’t work, then I’m only out $20! After a few minutes of cursing and sweating, then a quick prayer to the big man upstairs, I flipped the breaker and miracle of miracles, it fired up and we had cold air again!
Now here I am sweating my butt off in July 2022, going through the same steps. I have the part ordered and it should be here today, before 10pm. This time though, we are going to get it fixed and limp along until we can replace the entire unit. It was installed over 20 years ago and has been working ok, but we know it won’t last forever!
In other news, I just dropped $1200 on new tires for my Ford F-150 truck. The previous set was balder than Mr. Clean on free hair cut day! I had been telling my wife about it for a while, but it wasn’t until my brother-in-law mentioned their lack of tread while were camping in Cadillac. Well, as I said, $1200 bucks out of the coffers and now my truck has new Cooper brand shoes!
Let’s hope the new part fixes the AC because I am ready to hide in the basement where it’s cooler!
TTFN!