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cantralachelp · Apr 27, 2009, 01:46 PM

My 1st floor central A/C not having any cool air, the indoor fan is working but the outdoor fan is not working. I turned on the 1st floor A/C by mistake without removing the outdoor unit's cover I put on over the winter. I realized the problem after 1st floor A/C run about 1~2 hours. Would that do any damage to the outdoor condenser? Or is that the reason why the outdoor fan is not working? I had similar problem with my 2nd floor A/C (in attic) about 2 years ago. There was no cool air made and outdoor fan was not working. I had repairman came in and added 4 lbs freon to the 2nd floor unit and 1 lb. the 1st floor unit. How often is it to add more freon? Would low freon be the reason to my 1st floor A/C outdoor fan not working?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Joshdta · Apr 27, 2009, 06:36 PM

That was in no way good for the unit. you should never have to add freon to a unit. If he added 4 lbs to one unit he should have looked for a leak. I would chck your breaker having the cover on may have triped it. The check the compasitor outside.

wmproop · Apr 27, 2009, 07:16 PM

This my friends is why I advise my customers to not cover their units in the winter,, the weather doesn`t hurt/harm them in any way,, if they insist,I advise nothing but maybe something like a trash can lid laying just on the top with a few bricks to hold it down, just to help keep the leaves out of the unit

Its very easy and possible to burn up and ruin the unit

cantralachelp · Apr 28, 2009, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by Joshdta

That was in no way good for the unit., you should never have to add freon to a unit. if he added 4 lbs to one unit he should have looked for a leak. I would chck your breaker having the cover on may have triped it. The check the compasitor outside.

Thanks so much for your response! Did I get ripoff by the repairman? 4lbs are lot of freon, I wonder what's the freon capacity for each unit. The repairman didn't say anything about the leaking, but after adding freon, my 2nd floor a/c unit run with no problem. Both of my a/c units are pretty old, ~15 year old. Is leaking a popular problem for old units like mine. I am thinking to replace with newer energy efficient a/c models, but afraid of the hefty cost. I heard there are many central a/c makers offering huge incentive and big rebate to promote their products under current tough economic condition. Any recommendations on good models and cost levels?

I checked the breaker on my main electric panel, it was OK. What's the compacitor? There is only one small metal box hooking up to the outside unit with a "disconector" you can pull out inside. Where do I have to find the compacitor? Maybe my unit is too old? Its compacitor is located inside rather than outside? What's the function of compacitor? Thanks so much!