PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

The capacitor was replaced less than three years ago...

 

On my old AC unit the damn capacitor would go out every year or two.

 

That sounds like an electrical short somewhere...

 

I've probably scrapped at least a dozen window A/C units since October 2023, and this Emerson Quiet Kool has so far been the most difficult one to disassemble because it was so rusted; I had to destroy it to get the compressor and coils out...

 

The second Emerson was much easier to take apart, but it was rustier than the first one...

 

The second Emerson had fewer rusty stripped screws than the first one, so gaining access to the valuable guts was much easier...

 

I actually got the cabinet off!

 

Rotted aluminum...

 

Of all the appliances I scored from the apartment complex, the window A/C units and the refrigerator yielded the most valuable scrap metal; I also got aluminum scrap from the ventilation hood for the gas stove and the dishwasher that I found by the side of the road, and the dishwasher also had some wire...

 

The control panel plates from most older window A/C units are made out of aluminum!

 

The compressor from the 2008 Hotpoint refrigerator that I scored from the apartment complex, which I could detach from the metal thing...

 

I thought that the fridge was from the 1990s based on its condition, and I initially though that it was 1993 at the newest until I saw the "R134a" label; I was shocked when I found this label on the back that showed a manufacture date of August 14th, 2008...

 

Disemboweled fridge...

 

That old unit used to leak refrigerant, l figured it was somehow related to that.

 

Not at all. Capacitors and refrigerant are two totally different things. If there was a short in the system, it was overloading the capacitors and causing them to fail. A capacitor simply starts the unit. If a capacitor fails, the unit will either emit a buzzing noise or not do anything at all. Changing a capacitor is one of the few things on an air-conditioner or heat pump that a layperson can do without formal training.

Refrigerant leaks usually develop because the coils corrode and rot, or be one of the copper lines comes into contact with metal and a whole gets vibrated in the copper.

 

Right l am aware they are 2 different systems, my thinking was it was always working harder to cool because of the low refrigerant level.
The coils were corroded and that is where the leak was, the price difference was not all that different from a completely new setup which why l went that route.

 

Plus, a 1993 Lennox would have R-22, and that's harder to get. You haven't been able to legally buy R-22 systems in over a decade...

 

Yep, it was expensive to get frequent charges!

 

Do you have to decomission the refrigerant in the scrap units, or are they already leaked oyut?