I have a Trane Weathertron XE 1100 heat pump which stopped working. The unit makes a noise when I turn on cool on the thermostat which I think might be the compressor. The large fan in the unit does not come on however. I have checked the fuses. I have turned off the thermostat controls and than turned everything on again. What is the likely problem or what else can I check.
Fred

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Originally Posted by fpbock

I have a Trane Weathertron XE 1100 heat pump which stopped working. The unit makes a noise when I turn on cool on the thermostat which I think might be the compressor. The large fan in the unit does not come on however. I have checked the fuses. I have turned off the thermostat controls and than turned everything on again. What is the likely problem or what else can I check.
Fred

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If the compressor is running but the fan is not in the outside unit then I would suspect the fan motor capacitor or the fan motor itself. From your description it is very hard to tell for sure without being there.

I would agree with the writer above and I have been in the business for 38 years. If you could test it with a meter you would know; nevertheless, you will most likely need to replace it which means you need to remove the fan and go to an HVAC supply house and buy a new motor with capacitor. You can also have a problem on the outside circuit board which is why you need a meter. There is a relay on that board that controls the outside fan; it turns off the fan when the unit goes into defrost mode when you are using heat.

A friend came over and pushed the fan blade on the outside unit. The compressor was running. The fan motor started and ran for about 1 hr before stopping again. Tried spinning the fan but the motor will not kick in. The compressor is definitely running. Is the same copacitor work with both the compressor and the fan motor?

They are two different capacitors, but sometimes they are in the same housing and there are three terminals: a common, fan, and compressor terminal. It's likely you have a blown start winding. You can run the compressor temporarily by putting a sprinkler on the coils to keep them wet (This trick also lowers your electric bill and makes the ac colder) until you replace the fan motor and capacitor. You should test the fan motor with an ohm meter because you could just have an open capacitor and the windings are good on the motor. Check the resistance of the windings and see if you read anything to ground. If you read anything to ground get a new motor and capacitor. Turn off power and find the fan capacitor. It will have two brown wires to it or common and a brown wire. Short the terminals first and measure resistance. If it's good you will measure resistance and it will go to infinity. Switching leads around and it will do it again. If you just get infinity or measure something to ground it's bad and more than likely the motor is bad, too. When you replace the motor you may need a fan puller to get blades off. Make sure to oil motor before installing it with turbine oil which you get at the parts store and get a matching capacitor. Those motors are sealed motors and some are made to be mounted a certain way, up, down, or horizontal. You may have a 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 hp motor. You can go up, but not down. 1/2 and 1/3 hp are most common on a home ac and 1/4 hp on apartments.