# Bad fan motor??



## johnnyq (Apr 19, 2014)

I have a comformaker AC unit model nac042gkc3.  My wife turned on the AC today, but the house did not cool down.  When I returned home this evening I had her turn off the thermostat and I went to look at the ac unit.  The fan did not turn when power was sent to the unit.  The fan was warm to the touch.  The blades spin freely when the power is off.  I have a voltmeter, but am not very good with it. 

 Does the heat of the fan motor indicate a damaged unit?  

Could the compressor have been damaged if the unit was on all day and trying to run?

Is it possible to repair the motor, or does it have to be replaced?

Any help is appreciated.


----------



## slownsteady (Apr 20, 2014)

The fan could have been running, but the compressor may not have been operating. I suspect that the fan would have been VERY hot (if not completely fried) if it had been on and stalled for the whole day.


----------



## havasu (Apr 20, 2014)

I recently had this exact thing happen and determined it was a bad capacitor. My air guy charged me $150 to diagnose it, and $79.95 for the new capacitor.


----------



## Wuzzat? (Apr 20, 2014)

havasu said:


> I recently had this exact thing happen and determined it was a bad capacitor. My air guy charged me $150 to diagnose it, and $79.95 for the new capacitor.


The local HVAC place charges me about $20 for a cap and you can check Grainger's prices online.
Replacing it sounds like a good bet unless some other fault caused the cap to fail but a failure due to age sounds likely.


----------



## havasu (Apr 20, 2014)

A few days after fixing my air, my son called to tell me his own air was also out. Instead of having a service guy come out to his house, he took his cap and headed to Granger's, but ran into a local air service guy already in his neighborhood. He showed the service tech the part, he charged him $40, and came home with the new cap. He installed it and is now working great.


----------



## Wuzzat? (Apr 20, 2014)

johnnyq said:


> The fan did not turn when power was sent to the unit.  The fan was warm to the touch.  The blades spin freely when the power is off.


First check that the power to the unit is within spec while it's on.  It could be a bad connection upstream.

IMHO, with this kind of task, sharp sheet metal edges are about as dangerous as the voltages present.


----------

