HVAC condenser compressor tripping breaker

Just a troubleshooting talk about condensers and hard start / soft start devices and a show and tell about capacitors.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• air
• breaker
• compressor
• conditioning
• hvac
• tripping

[cbobmonster]

mike i have a york roof mounted unit blows warm air all of a sudden what do u think compressior  thanks

[mikie2501]

@cbobmonster You'll probably have to have a tech look at it, suddenly going from cooling to just warm air could be any one of a dozen different problems ranging from a burned off wire to a dead compressor! M@

[yeaababy69]

actually 5-2-1 arent even that great.. they just turn your compressor into a cap start cap run compressor, the only really good hard start device is a kick start... otherwise your just charging the poor customer to throw more crap on their unit.

[mikie2501]

Everyone has thier favorite start kits, I prefer 3 wire jobs instead of the 2 wire ones. I seem to replace them more often. Other than the way things are wired the kickstart is basically the same as a 5-2-1, they both have a capacitor and both have a current sensing relay. The kickstart is just a more convient package to wire and install since it's just one screw and 2 wires:>

[jdr5501]

It's PTC(Positive Temperature Coefficient)

[mikie2501]

Ty :> couldn't remember that, lol.

[THEHVACTECH101]

What exactly is the soft start pos???What does it do???

[THEHVACTECH101]

@cbobmonster Maybe there is a leak of refrigerant somewhere also.

[acsjoe1224]

Could it be that the constant on and off of the unit cause the PTC to overheat? and did you inspect the mettering device used? by the time you rewired the components the TXV could have evened out the pressures and allowed the condensor to start easier.

[Bobafyde4]

Great informational video

[sickbastard80]

521 Potential relay versus PTC EXPLAINED. pros cons. the 521's the way to you but you have to select the CORRECT pick up voltage for the given compresor. the 521 has a set of normally closed contacts THAT short line to start,, that open once the voltage between start and comon is greated than line voltage. to size a 521 properly this is how you do it. once the compressor's running check the voltage between common and start, which will be from 400 to 470 VOLTS!!!

[RefrigeTech]

The blue part you called a soft start is a solid state relay. Its the same as the hard start kit but smaller and no start cap. If you snip the yellow wire and put each end on a start cap you now have a smaller hard start. Since it was too small for the compressor it could not drop out the start winding fast enough causing the hot temp of part, high current and breaker trip. Since current takes the path of least resistance it was flowing through the blue relay instead of the supco hard start.

[plantengineer02]

He is very good.

[linoleumcarving]

thanks