More Heat Pump Trouble

[Tom King]

I was over at the rental house, the one I replaced the capacitor in a few days ago, and when I checked the thermostat to see what the temperature was in the house, I noticed the Aux heat was on.  Being warm enough outside that it shouldn't be on AUX, I went outside and saw that the outside unit wasn't running.  The fan was running inside.

Knowing that it has operated like it was supposed to after I replaced the cap, I opened up the air handler to see if there was anything obvious.  There was.

A no.10 wire showed signs of arcing and was loose from its connector.

Other units here are major brand names, and I have been very impressed looking in them.  This one had a Tempstar outside unit, and the inside air handler was something that started with TOR but I don't remember the other.  It was not a name I had seen before.  I expect whenever this unit was replaced the owners went with the cheapest bid.  It was just a jumble of wires, and no consideration had been made, like in the major brand ones, for being able to get to anything to do testing.

The offending wire was on a piggyback connector on the out side of the contactor controlled by the thermostat.  I decided to fix it, and see if it went back to work.

The no.10 wire had been soldered to a connector end for the next size smaller wire.  It was on the extra lug on the piggyback connector that was still on the lug of the contactor, and the fan wire on that connector was fine.

I didn't have any piggyback connectors, never having needed one before, so I went to town to find one.  None in town either for no.10 wire on 1/4" connector.  I made one by cutting up the smaller one.  It seems to me that contactor should be one with larger lugs than 1/4" anyway, but I guess it would have cost 2 dollars more.

It's working like it should, but I ordered the correct size dual connectors, and will change it back out when they come.

Renters are coming to stay there through Christmas, and more through New Years.  I hope it will last until the new connectors come.

When I changed that cap, it wasn't shot completely, but was only good for 15 microfarads whereas the unit called for 45.  I expect that wire heated up enough to melt the solder out of the connection with the motors taking longer to get going with the weak cap.

I wish I could buy a major name brand for when I can replace the whole system before the Summer season, but can only do that if I get pros to do the install.  I've been unimpressed by work I've seen by pros around here so far.

 

[JohnG]

Yikes, what a mess. Glad you got it up and running again. 

The guys I used to replace our unit this summer are great, but not sure they go that far. We’ve been using them for our industrial properties for years as well. 

[Tom King]

I'm probably just going to buy a Goodman, which is probably the best one a non-dealer can get.  That's what my scientist friend used to replace one in their house.  I'm sure it will be a quarter or less than what I can get a pro to install a major brand name.

Fortunately, all the others here are major brands Trane, Carrier, and Lennox.  I've never looked inside the Lennox ones, but expect they're pretty good too.  The Trane is easy to get to anything in it.  That's the one I had to replace the lineset on.

[JohnG]

We’ve put in a few Goodmans and I haven’t heard of any issues from them. 
at home we have a 1994 Lennox that’s still running, but had to replace our 2012 Lennox. Two different guys I talked to said they either last forever or die in 5-10yrs. 
We went with Bryant (Carrier) for our new unit and it’s nicely built. Clean and easy to access the parts from what I saw. 

[Tom King]

I really don't like that air handler. I might just replace the air handler with a Goodman for less than $900, and see if we can get a few more years out of the outside unit.  The two parts there now are mismatched brands anyway.  Most of the work would be in swapping the air handler since it's in a tight attic and ducts to redo on both ends.  The outside unit would be fairly quick and easy to swap if the compressor fails.

We have several weeks between renters in January, so I could do the swap then and be good to go for Summer season.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Goodman-ARUF29B14-Goodman-2-2-5-Ton-Multi-Position-Air-Handler?_br_psugg_q=goodman+air+handler

[Tom King]

This unit has been working flawlessly since my "bush fix".  The pieces I used the cobble up that piggyback connector are thinner than I like though, so I ordered some ready made ones the correct size for the no.10 wire and 1/4" connectors,  Those came but I put off working on it because we had renters in the house.

When I was looking for something else on Amazon, these heavier adapters popped up, so I ordered some of those.

I hadn't gotten back to working on this again yet, and in the meantime these came in.  They're a Much better design with solid metal, and even folded over double.  When I can get to it, I'm going to replace the ends on those wires with good quality connectors, and put one of these on that lug on the Contactor.

Everything else looks fine in this unit, it's been running flawlessly, and not even needed any refrigerant added as long as we've owned it, so I'm going to let it ride for as long as it lasts.  The to-do list is too long to do something that really doesn't have to be done yet.

Ancor is a brand I remember seeing for a long time.   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NI1G0C?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details