Outside ac unit repair

A funny thing happened after I felt all good about changing the furnace filter yesterday...

I thought the house seemed a little warm when I woke up Saturday morning. I didn't think much of it, but later on I was outside and noticed the Air Conditioner unit outside making a funny noise. It was off, but every now and then it sounded like it was trying to start. Sure enough, it was.

My first instinct was to clean out around the outside of it and inside. There were some leaves and mulch and whatnot. Then I checked to make sure no circuit breakers had tripped. Finally I resorted to Google. Aha!

I happened across this swell youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpYHcXwu9JA) and it seemed like something I could maybe tackle. I tried exactly what this guy did - starting the fan by spinning it with a screwdriver - and my problem was the same as his. The capacitor was the culprit! Now, if only it wasn't the first day of a three-day weekend!

I looked online for the specific capacitor I needed. It runs both the fan and the compressor. I could get one for $10-$20, but getting it before Tuesday was going to be the problem (holiday weekend).

Well, it just happened that... Jane noticed a Coe Heating & Air Conditioning van parked at the neighbors house. While I was looking things up on the computer (which just happens to look onto their driveway) I saw him come out and get in his van. So I ran out and sort of sheepishly asked if he happened to have an extra capacitor on him. He asked what the problem was, and came over and looked at it.

Sure enough, it was a bad capacitor. He put the new one on right away, cleaned out the unit more thoroughly than I had (he used a hose with high water pressure), and this is when I was glad he was there... When he started it up, the compressor didn't come on right away. He sprayed it down with the hose and said he hoped it was just too hot and needed cooling down. He was right. It took right off. Then he checked the freon, and it was a little low. So he charged it up, and told me, by the way, this unit is 21 years old. Apparently at the end of this year they will no longer make parts for it and he said just to be aware that we are on borrowed time with it (they are rated to last 20 years). He said it may be another 20, or it may go out next week... it's just hard to say.

Anyway, I felt extremely fortunate that this guy was next door. He said he was only there doing a personal favor for our neighbor, so we owed her a big-time favor. He said because of that he wasn't going to charge us the $200 weekend/holiday service call fee. He only charged us for the parts, and it was $60, so I gave him $100 and thanked him profusely. I also said that when the time came to need a new ac unit, he would be getting our business.

What impressed me was that he never grumbled, he went above and beyond merely fixing what was wrong. He didn't have to clean the unit out and get himself wet and dirty. Plus, apparently it's been a family-owned business since 1962. Not only family-owned, but that's the year I was born. I can be oddly loyal about such things.

In the end, we averted a major discomfort on the first hot weekend of the summer, and discovered a new company to use for our HVAC needs.