Condenser unit outside stopped running. I turned off power to furnace changed battery in thermostat. Turned power back to furnace. Checked voltage at thermostat wires in furnace. Showed good power to thermostat. Checked voltage at power panel for the condenser unit. Reset the breaker. Pulled out disconnect on side of house and reseated it.

Went back in turned thermostat down and every thing was fine. This was about 12:00am. Woke up at 5 am outside condenser not running again. Furnace blower fan works fine.

Checked evaportor coil and it is not iced up.

Not sure if need freon or if motor on outside condenser going bad or some part on outside condenser going bad.

I know outside condenser turns freely because I just oiled it a month ago and every thing was working fine couple days ago.

Not sure where to go from here.


I don't think it is the breaker because this is the first time this has happened. I just reset breaker thinking that it would help to remove power from condenser. Not sure if I need freon or maybe weak caps on condenser fan or compressor motor

Is it kicking the breaker,maybe breaker is weak,when it get warm or hot .if so replace it

is it kicking the breaker,maybe breaker is weak,when it get warm or hot .if so replace it

I checked the condenser unit outside last night about 8:30. Did not have much light so was using a trouble light. Removed power opened the access panel. There was a cover over the relay. I removed the cover to find fried snake all over the relay and all over the capacitor contacts. Which explains why the night before the area around the condenser smelled as though something had died. Also there was a smaller live snake in there as well. Which startled me a little.

After removing as much of the charred remains I tested the caps. They checked out OK. I checked continuity across the relay. One side was good the other side is showed open. After wire marking all the leads I removed the relay and scraped out the crud on the contacts and checked the continuity. Both sides show good now. I also spayed contacts heavily with some carb cleaner to losen up any remaining crud in there. Will reinstall latter today.

Goodluck