Original message
| CertifiedHandy
|  "Replacement Compressor Out"
, posted Wed 28 May 19:23  
I recently replaced a compressor on a heat pump that is still under warranty. It is the second changeout within 12 months. Whoever did the initial changeout did not install a dryer. I'm certain that contributed to the second burnout. I installed a bi-flow dryer and it worked fine for about three weeks. In my opinion the burnout was severe enough to re-install a dryer after 72 hours. That was not an option. The compressor Ohms good. The fan and the blower operates and all other components are good. The capacitor was shorted so I changed it. I would like to install a start kit but whenever I have suggested this I have been told no.
Also I have a 10 ton roof top about 12 years old. Since the building is about to be abandoned my clients don't want to spend any money so I was told to get it running. I had a burnedout compressor and an accumulator on opposite sides of the unit. I have modified the unit. It cools.....but...It cooled fine for a while then it started to call for heat and cool at the same time. I was able to solve that problem now when the unit cycles the compressor keeps running and the fans stop. Any ideas how to make the transition ....
CertifiedHandy
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Replies:
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| serenaMD
| "Re(1):Replacement Compressor Out" , posted Fri 30 May 22:13
I'm glad I found your post. We own a townhouse that my mom and sis live in, and it was a BRAND NEW construction that year, in February 2005. Within a few months, once summer rolled around, the unit was giving us problems (it froze). One year afterwards, in summer 2006, we were told the compressor was bad, and it was replaced, free-of-charge by the contractors that the builders used.
Fast forward to 2008.....and once again, the A/C unit is NOT working. Someone came to do an estimate and said the compressor is in fact bad, but because compressors don't blow out like this, that there is some other reason why the compressors are going bad. This repair guy said it looks like the things that were supposed to be replaced when the last compressor was installed, were not repaired (maybe the dryer and the liquid line??) This guy thinks the whole unit is "contaminated" whatever that means....that even if we replaced the compressor (which hopefully would be covered by warantee), he thinks it will go bad again in another year or so.
So what do we do????????
1. Contact the company that did the original installation and compressor repair, and complain that they didn't install it properly?
2. Contact the builder of the townhomes and complain that the unit has been defective from the beginning?
3. Suck it up and get a whole new unit installed, at OUR EXPENSE??
My fear is that IF the HVAC company that installed it and replaced the last compressor screwed up, how do we PROVE that they screwed up, and how do we get THEM to foot this bill???
Any help you can provide is much appreciated!!!!
I just don't think we should have to be responsible for a NEW UNIT when the place is only 3 years old, and has been through 2 compressors already.
HELP!!!!!
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| theduke03
| "Re(1):Replacement Compressor Out" , posted Wed 28 May 19:41
When you say "burnout" what exactly is that? Compressors normally die from a short or a locked rotor. If refrigerant is burned then I would call that a burnout. A burned out comressor will cause subsequent burnouts due to acids left in the system. This can be easily determined by smelling the refrigerant in the system vey carefully (a light waft). If it's burned it will smell awful and possibly knock you out. Normally we try to find and fix the cause of compressor failure before running the new one.
"My dad was the most feared furnace fighter in Northern Indiana."
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