I have a four year old amana central air unit (prestige ultra, 60,000 BTUs). Last night I noticed it wasn't working. The furnace blower turns on, but nothing happens at the condenser unit. I checked the fuses at the condenser power box and the house fuse box, all are fine. The 240 Vac is getting down to the unit. I removed the fan and pushed the reset switch tapped off one of the coils. The unit started after the reset - the condenser started to hum, but no fan. After about 5-10 seconds, the cutoff switch popped and the unit stopped working. The fan seems to turn freely when I rotate it. After each reset the same thing happens - 5-10 seconds of condenser action then a pop and all goes silent.

Any thoughts?

You might have a defective fan motor capacitor. Try replacing that first with one of the same value. If that dos not work you will need a new motor AND a new capacitor that matches the new motor.

NOTE: Your unit should have a 5 year parts warranty. You might want to check on the warranty status of your equipment before spending your money.

Thanks, hvax1000. I will take a closer look at the cap and motor. I was wondering if it could be low on freon and the low pressure cutout was tripping because of that. Is there an easy way to check this?

That was probably a high pressure switch that tripped because the fan was not running causing high pressure from lack of heat removal.

It was the fan... had the old one tested and it wouldn't work. Put in a new one and it works great.

Thanks.

Glad you got it going