A Careful Heat Pump Repair in Chuckey, TN

We received a call from an existing customer in need of a heat pump repair in Chuckey, TN. They said that they had just bought this new property as an investment home near their private residence. They said that the indoor blower motor would come on, but it wouldn't blow heated or cooled air inside. They said that they kept trying to get it to work by turning the thermostat off and then back on again in the heat or cool modes, but the outdoor heat pump wouldn’t turn on. They said that the unit dimmed the lights when it tried to start the first several times that they switched the thermostat back and forth to the cool or heat mode and then all of the sudden they heard a loud noise that sounded like a firecracker going off. They said that they tried it a few more times after the loud noise and it wouldn't even dim the lights anymore, but the indoor blower motor would still run. We advised them to immediately turn the thermostat off until we got over there and to stop trying to turn it on.

When we arrived, we went to the outdoor heat pump since it wasn’t turning on while they kept moving their thermostat to cooling or heating trying to get it to work. Also, the customer stated that the indoor blower motor was still working, so starting outside seemed like a good place to start. When we approached the outdoor heat pump, we could smell a burnt electrical smell coming from it. We pulled the outdoor disconnect out so that there was not any high voltage still going to the unit. Just to be cautious, we put our electrical meter lead on a ground source and one lead to the case of the heat pump just to make sure we didn’t have any live voltage on the case and luckily, we didn’t. We opened the service panel on the heat pump and found a dual run capacitor that had exploded and signs of fire damage and melted wires inside the electrical compartment of the heat pump.

The damage to this heat pump is a perfect example of why someone should turn their HVAC unit off if it doesn't work. Do not keep trying to get the system to work if it doesn't turn on. It is not going to magically start working by cycling the thermostat over and over again. The only thing cycling the thermostat over and over again is going to do, is cause more damage to the system. Turn the thermostat to the off position, have the unit diagnosed by someone, and the faulty component or components replaced before trying to start the system again. This customer probably only had a bad dual run capacitor to start out with, but they kept trying to get the system to start versus turning it off, which unfortunately caused much more damage to the system.

As they kept trying to start the system with a failed dual run capacitor, it overheated the system’s compressor and the dual run capacitor would have been extremely hot as well until it ultimately failed miserably. The loud firecracker noise that they heard was the capacitor popping inside the unit with high voltage to it and it ended up taking out everything inside the electrical access panel. Now the customer is facing a new dual run capacitor, a high voltage contactor with 24-volt coil, a new defrost control board with 2 thermistors, numerous wire repairs, wire replacements, new stake-ons, travel time to and from the supply house in another town, and the labor involved with those repairs.

During testing of what was harmed during the failure, the compressor had no continuity between the windings common and run due to overheating. Luckily, after running cold water on the compressor for 7-8 minutes, the compressor’s thermal overload protection closed and restored continuity between the common and run windings. The windings on the compressor and condenser fan motor were luckily not shorted to ground when we tested them and the ohms on the motor windings looked okay as well. Unfortunately, we can’t see inside the compressor or fan motor so we couldn’t tell the extent of the damage on the inside of them. We can say that they overheated and to expect a shorter lifespan as a result, but they could last years even with the beating they took. Time will tell. We also were able to verify that the system had pressure inside of it and that the standing pressure on the system matched up with the ambient temperature, so that was a good sign that the damage didn’t get into the refrigerant circuit.

Please remember that if your HVAC unit doesn't work, turn it off at the thermostat and do not keep trying to get the unit to turn on. If you need assistance with your HVAC unit and reside within our service area of Northeast Tennessee, please feel free to reach out to Magnolia Services based out of Johnson City, TN. We would be happy to help. Stay safe out there and best wishes.

Location: Chuckey, TN