Top 5 AC Problems and How to Fix Them

hey guys jay here with word of advice tv and in this video i'll be going over the top five air conditioner problems and what you could do to fix them now i just want to point out that this is going to be more of a reference video so if you're watching this because your ac is not working and you have no idea where to start i have a different video called ac unit not turning on and how to fix it there i go into a lot of details step by step by step troubleshooting it's a pretty simple video that you can follow along that can help you narrow down the problem and hopefully fix it and this video itself is a shortened version of my video of top 10 ac problems where i go over about 30 different problems and what you could do to fix them but in the comments section of those videos i still get so many questions of people asking me how to do something and i already have a video that explains it thoroughly you know how to do it how to fix it how to find the ratings and whatnot so i'm making this video top 5 ac problems as more of a reference video every single problem i'm going to be listing i'm going to be directing you to a couple of videos that can help you with that specific problem anyway that's it for the intro let's begin problem number one this is by far the most common ac problem there is in fact i even have a video called the most common ac problem and that's what it's about problem number one is a bad capacitor the symptoms of a bad capacitor are usually pretty easy to spot what will happen is the fan inside the house is going to be running but it's going to be blowing hot air or basically room temperature air and the unit outside will not be running at all and if you stand by it when you turn your ac on every 30 seconds or so you might hear a buzz like the air conditioner is trying to start but it fails to start if you see something like that that is almost for sure a bad capacitor another one which is a little bit more tricky is when the fan inside is working and even the fan outside is working but the compressor is not working so when the fan runs and the compressor runs they make a little bit of a different noise the fan it just sounds like a car window open you know just air blowing but the compressor it makes more of a rumbling sound so usually you should be able to hear the difference if it's just the fan on or if they're both on the compressor and the fan so oftentimes what happens is a customer will tell me hey everything is working great but the house is not getting cooled off and when i get there yeah the two fans are working but the compressor is not because the capacitor is dead once i replace the capacitor everything fires right up so if you think that the problem you are having is a bad capacitor i have a really good video where i go over everything about the capacitor how to replace it where to find it how to buy the right one how to read the ratings on it and all of that everything that you need to know about replacing a capacitor i have in that one video and if you have a really old air conditioner that has three or four capacitors in there then you might want to watch my video on how to combine capacitors that one might help you out with that because that tends to be a little bit more messy and lastly if your capacitor is totally rusted out just full of rust and you can't read anything on it so you don't know which capacitor to get i also have a video for that of how to deal with that and how to find the right capacitor for the unit if you can't read anything on the capacitor i will leave links to all of these videos in the description section of this video and moving on to problem number two the second reason why an air conditioner stops working right is because it is low on refrigerant unfortunately this problem is a little harder to deal with and most likely you will need a technician to come out to get that fixed and the most common symptoms of a unit being low on refrigerant is when everything is running the fan inside is running everything outside is running the fan and the compressor yet the house is not cooling off or maybe it is cooling off but it just never reaches the set point if you have your thermostat set to let's say 75 it never gets there it just hovers around 78 and it struggles to go down that could be a sign that your unit is low on refrigerant but before you jump to that conclusion one thing i would try doing is washing down the condenser unit it might be dirty if you're not sure how to do that i have a video for that as well maybe after you wash it down that might just be all it needed or if you haven't replaced the furnace filter in a long time try replacing the filter and see if that makes a difference if you did that and it's still not cooling there's one easy test that you can do just to confirm that it's not cooling enough and that is to measure the temperatures into ductwork by the furnace so let's go inside and i'll show you real quick what i'm talking about okay we're in the house and we're gonna measure some temperatures i'm gonna use a probe thermometer like this you can use any thermometer as long as you're going to be able to stick it into the ductwork somehow but we just want to get the temperatures between the supply and the return well actually this is the return usually wherever your filter is going to be so our filter is right over here that's going to be your return and whatever is coming out from the furnace that's going to be the supply so we want the temperature difference between the two which should be on a normally working air conditioner it should be somewhere between 15 to 20 degrees so let's try it you can insert your thermometer into one of these canvases these flexible things and if you're worried about making a hole in it don't be i mean if you think about your vents they're this huge a gigantic hole in the duct that's what a vent is so you making a tiny hole inside of this rubber thing that that's not going to do anything so don't worry about that too much i mean you don't want to make the hole too big but just a little size hole like this that's fine and just give it a minute or so or until the temperatures stop moving this one is pretty steady i mean it might fluctuate just a little bit but let's say it's going to go down to about 71 degrees so our return is 71. and if we look at our supply there's nowhere where we can put our thermometer in this rubber thing is not over here and sometimes you get lucky if this duct has ever been cleaned they'll leave little plugs on your ductwork little black plugs you can just stick a thermometer in there but i am not that lucky so my options are either drill a small hole somewhere in the supply trunk a little bit higher you don't want to be drilling where the a coil is not even close go higher like either here or here stick your thermometer in and get a reading so what i'm going to do is simply go find a vent and i'll stick my thermometer into the vent and see what temperature we're getting okay so we found a vent in the bathroom let's see what kind of temperature we're gonna get coming out of the supply so our return was about 71 degrees and our supply we're going to want at least 15 degrees lower and by the way i do have another video where i take a temp drop like this on a different furnace so if you want another example you can check that video out as well i'll leave that in the description too so we got to about 57 degrees and it really slowed down it's going down really slowly but just because we're not at our 15 degrees that doesn't quite mean that this is bad yet you have to take a few different readings in a few different spots so you can try a few other vents or maybe the ductwork in the basement get a few different reads before you come to a conclusion let's see if this will make a difference even if i just move this thermostat over here because sometimes the airflow is a little bit stronger on the sides of these vents instead of the middle okay so i gave it another half a minute and as you can see we got down to 56.1 so we're exactly at 15 degrees and i bet you if we check the supply duct torque down in the basement if i were to drill a little hole there that would probably be even a little bit lower so as long as you're in the range of 15 to 20 that's a good sign that means your air conditioner is working well it's cooling well if it's below that let's say it's 10 degrees or even 8 degrees difference that means there's something wrong either the airflow is restricted that's why i suggested replacing the air filter or your low on refrigerant and that is why it's not cooling down enough so that's one quick little test you can do yourself to see if your ac is performing like it should okay we're back outside and as i mentioned earlier if this is the problem you are having most likely you will have to call a technician because this is a little bit more complex to deal with but if you're curious to know how it works i have a video on how an air conditioner works just a simple basic explanation you might find that interesting and i also have a video on how to check ac pressures you'll need a set of gauges to do that and i have a couple videos on how to recharge the refrigerant on an air conditioner so if you're interested you could go ahead and check those out and next up we have problem number three which is a plugged condensate drain luckily this one is the easiest to fix and usually the air conditioner works just fine when this happens the symptoms of that is everything is working great the house is cool but when you go down to your furnace or air handler there's a big puddle of water under it and you're wondering why the heck is that happening usually it's simply because either the hose the condensate drain line or the pvc pipe is plugged or the fitting where it comes into the a coil is plugged up with bugs or dirt or whatever else leaves and all you have to do is clear that out and your leaking problem should go away and let's just go back inside real quick and i'll show you more about what i'm talking about inside of the house on top of the furnace we have the a coil and on the bottom we have a drain pan where all the condensation collects and then all of that condensation goes down this line right over here goes into this trap you can even see water dripping because the ac is running right now it goes into this trap and then flows into the floor drain right over here and if we look at the back side of the unit here's the fitting this is where it screws in and where all that water starts to come from and then it goes down this pipe if it's pvc this can either be pvc or a clear plastic hose which is a little bit easier that one you can just take off and you can see everything you can even unscrew the fitting when it's pvc it's usually all glued so your options are either to cut it somewhere and then use a coupler to put it back on to glue it back together or an even easier method is to simply get some compressed air and blow backwards inside of this pipe so if there's anything stuck usually whatever stuck it's going to be right at this fitting right here if there's anything stuck in here you can blow it backwards into there and a bunch of water will come gushing out so this system has a pvc condensate drain line i also have a video where there was a clear hose and how i cleared that one out as well if you want you can check that video out okay and problem number four is a bad control board the symptoms of that vary but usually the furnace or the air conditioner are gonna start doing some really weird stuff for example i've been out to a house where the control board this happened to me a couple times the control board turned on both the furnace and ac at the same time it would be sending power to both of them so both of them running at the same time doesn't get much accomplished or you can have a situation where the control board does not send power to the fan motor inside so this unit will be running just fine but the fan inside is not getting any power and what happens then is everything freezes up the a-coil on top of the furnace there that will freeze up first and sometimes it could turn into just a solid block of ice but by the way if your unit is freezing it's not necessarily because of a bad control board i have a video where i talk about eight reasons why it can freeze so before you jump to any conclusions like that make sure you check that video out another symptom could be that the fan motor just stays on all the time in the furnace so regardless of what you turn off or on the fan inside just runs and runs and runs it's stuck in the on position so the control board can do funky stuff like that if your furnace is doing some bizarre things then perhaps that control board is bad i have a video where i show you how to simply troubleshoot the control board and see if there's anything wrong with it unfortunately if you don't have a meter then you will need to get one because to troubleshoot the control board you will need a meter and reason number five is a bad condenser fan motor this one is pretty obvious the fan inside is running the compressor usually will be running until it overheats but the condenser fan motor on top of the unit that will not be running oftentimes if you turn your ac on and it runs for a couple of minutes without the fan running if you go outside you might even see some smoke or steam coming up from your unit it is possible though that the fan motor is good and it's simply the capacitor that is dead and that's why that fan motor is not coming on so before you condem a fan motor make sure you check the capacitor and if you notice this problem the very first time you turn on your ac for the season then perhaps that fan motor is just a little bit stuck and it just needs a little push to get it going and it might run just fine for the rest of the year and to do that all you need is just a long stick or maybe a long screwdriver you could even use like a drill bit extension like this you reach in between the grates and you just give that fan blade a push just to get it going as the unit is running you should be able to hear the compressor running when this is happening and the direction that you want to push the blades is so that the blades are facing downwards so whatever way you're pushing it make sure the blades are scooping the air so they're facing down the direction that they're going into you want the fan to be pushing the air up but let's say that you go to push the fan blade like that and that thing it barely even moves usually when you push it it should spin pretty freely if you go to push it and it just barely moves or maybe it doesn't move at all that means that fan motor is locked up and you will need to replace that condenser fan motor and if you are not sure if your condenser fan motor is bad or not i do have a video where i talk about how to check if it's bad or not to confirm it and if you get a new motor and the wires are different than the old one i also have a video on how to wire a condenser fan motor whether it be three wires or four wires so if you find yourself stuck with that problem that video will help you out lastly if you need an example to see how it's done i have a video where i replace the motor on this unit right here and you can watch exactly how i do it and i tell you some tips and tricks along the way well there we have it those were the top 5 ac problems i hope you found this video useful if you have any other questions please let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video please don't forget to mash that like button on the way out thank you so much for watching and i'll see you in the next video and if you're still here and not in the comment section below let me tell you a quick story about an old couple one day the man is sitting at the table drinking some coffee for breakfast and reading a newspaper when his wife walks into the room and she looks out the window and she's like wow the neighbor is hanging up some white linens on the closed drying line but they're still dirty what a silly woman someone really needs to teach her how to clean stuff she didn't even wash it properly and she's already trying to dry it george come take a look at this this is ridiculous so george gets up he looks out the window and he says absolutely nothing he just sits back down and keeps reading the newspaper the wife just shrugs and walks off in a week the same exact thing happens again she's looking out the window and she's like george this is ridiculous somebody should tell her that the linens are still dirty and once again george just looks out the window says nothing keeps reading his newspaper a week later a week later george again drinking coffee reading a newspaper the wife walks in looks out the window and she says this is unbelievable what a crazy woman and finally george has enough he abruptly stands up interrupts her goes grabs a rag comes up to the window and wipes it down real well and then he calls her over and he tells her honey it's not the linens that are dirty it's the window [Music] you

Channel: Word of Advice TV

Views: 114,708

Rating: 4.9441776 out of 5

Keywords: word of advice tv, air conditioner troubleshoot, air conditioner troubleshooting fan not working, ac not working, top 5 ac problems, top ac problems, ac not turning on, ac not cooling, ac not blowing cold air, ac not blowing air, air conditioning not working, ac unit outside not turning on, ac unit outside not running, ac unit outside freezing up, ac not starting, ac not starting up, air conditioner not working, ac not keeping up, ac not working correctly

Id: GOXgdnRB840

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 10 2021