I spent more than a couple hounded dollars on servicemen to install some kind of delay between turning on the fan and the compressor, because the fuse kept triggering. It helped for couple days but the problem reappeared. Finally, I managed to fix it my self by simply tightening the wire at the fuse - due to bad connection, the connection was heating up, heating up the fuse and, since the fuse is thermal, the fuse was triggering.

I felt like a smug … idiot after that.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The fact that the serviceman didnt check something like that first tells ya a lot about some of those guys.

We like to think they know a lot about this sort of thing because they do it all day, but theyre just as dumb and bumbling as anyone else doing any other kinda job.

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 points 1 year ago

So hard to find trusty techs. I get it, a man's gotta eat, but you don't have to upsell me parts.

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Well, it could be that some of them did it on purpose, because they started to convince me that the compressor motor is old, and that’s why it triggers.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You got refunds, right?

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, right. “Work completed, the part installed, can give you discount next time”

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My TV broke up, I looked up in YouTube and it was a common problem with that model, the backlights stopped working. I bought the replacement for like 10us and changed it myself. Still flying on that accomplishment.

[–] victron@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago

See? People like you is the problem, the cause the economy is in shambles, you should have thrown that shit to the curb for the garbage truck to take it, and buy a new one

[–] lunarul@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's me today. I fixed the dishwasher last night for $0

[–] muddybulldog@mylemmy.win 5 points 1 year ago

Take a bow.

[–] wolfcatreader@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

🙌

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

was the capacitor wasn't it?

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

that was literally the last 2 times. This time it was the secondary coil on the contactor, had a short. Well i guess it's technically always short since it's a continuous wire but it was even shorter. Was getting about 2 ohms across the coil and i guess 10-20 ohms is expected and the low resistance was popping the secondary fuse.

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

and a few weeks ago the compressor fan sounded like a t-rex stepped on a lego so i flipped her over, unfortunately she wasn't old enough for plugs so i just slowly let oil drip down my shaft and cranked it until i was satisfied. Now she doesn't scream at me when i try to turn her on. I use arch btw.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Recently fixed my home AC, pretty sure the contactor was screwed and the capacitor was done for. Just poor maintenance by the previous owner. Bought the parts, rewired the thermostat because it was a nightmare of cables in the furnace, and in the process blew a fuse and messed up the transformer in the furnace. I didn't have a replacement fuse so I jury rigged a bypass for now, got a new transformer that I tested and validated the output on, along with everything else in the chain, new contactor, new capacitor, and a completely rewired thermostat. Took a few days to fix.

In the process, I picked up an extra contactor, and capacitor, for the next time these parts inevitably fail. I need to go back and re-test all the parts, I suspect some may be ok, given that the wiring was such a mess, but I have no idea. I know the cap was definitely bad (bulged and leaking), but the rest might not be broken, they may have been malfunctioning by proxy of the bad fuse and wiring in the furnace.

Apart from fuses, I have everything and spares, so if I can validate that the transformer works, or the contactor is fine, then I'll have extra spares. No worries.

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

don't forget to get that fuse, any car parts store will have them.

Good thinking having spare parts on hand, mine always seems to fail on a saturday afternoon and everyone is closed. I'm just glad my town finally has an AC installer that lets you buy parts from their storefront right off the shelf. Most of the suppliers in town don't sell parts to us peasants for some reason, i guess they don't want money.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Well, they certainly don't want you buying parts and doing it yourself when you can pay 10x as much with their service fees to install a capacitor.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

technically always short since it’s a continuous wire

inductor things

glad you find the short, that one is even more tricky than a obviously busted capacitor

[–] Kofu@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This guy ohms

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 4 points 1 year ago

it's the law

[–] Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does your magic words require a degree to understand and practice or my dumb ass can learn the magic of fixing ACs?

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

being an electrical engineer has its perks, but the couple youtube videos i watched didn't require any technical knowledge, mostly just safety knowledge, like the one hand rule and how to safety squint.

[–] Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Yay ! Still some hope.

[–] mangotop@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

is figuring out this sort of stuff an exercise of trying to reverse engineer the product, or is it much simpler than I make it out to be? whenever I want to try and fix something all the videos I see people just magically know which places shouldn’t be shorting, and magically know which capacitor is causing it

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 1 year ago

It can be simple, you don't have to understand why something is wrong to know that it's wrong. They magically know it's the capacitor because it's the usual suspect, and they usually look swollen (the capacitor not necessarily the youtuber). Common problems are common, which is why youtube is pretty great because somene has probably had the same problem and posted the fix.

[–] nul9o9@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I replaced the capacitor after hearing the repair guy won't be available till the next day. I already slept in the heat and didn't want to do that again. Best believe I was strutting around the house in front of my wife lol.

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 3 points 1 year ago

Heck yeah, such a good feeling. When I got home today I was like ''Man, it's hot outside...sure feels good in here though!''

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

No, it wasn't a PC monitor

[–] muddybulldog@mylemmy.win 8 points 1 year ago

For me it was $24 for a new oven igniter. That was three weeks ago and it hasn’t worn off, yet.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can ... Can you help some teachers out maybe? https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/1980s-computer-controls-grps-heat-and-ac/

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably, i think they need to get some other quotes though, that price seems pretty high for retrofitting some control systems, granted I don't know how many endpoints they are managing from this single point of failure.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

I think the word is nepotism or stealing.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bro install some fucking breakers

[–] WagnasT@iusearchlinux.fyi 3 points 1 year ago

If i was doing HVAC for a living I'd get a resettable blade fuse for this task, but i got a box of fuses for a few bucks and I was able to isolate the problem after 3 guesses so I think it would have been overkill.