How to fix Air Conditioner Blowing Out WARM Air. How to fix air conditioner outside unit is not working. How to replace capacitor.

Where to buy capacitors:

30+5 MFD 370/440V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3OpO2Oq
35+5 MFD 370V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3KDaoed
40+5 MFD 370V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3ON5PAt
45+5 MFD 370V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3DQVDAJ
45+5 MFD 440V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3OPcB8Y
50+5 MFD 370/440V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3quWFiL
55+5 MFD 440V Capacitor: https://amzn.to/3KC7mqq

When your room is not cooling down to the temperature set on the thermostat because the air blowing out of your AC vents is not cold AND the outside AC unit’s fan is not turning, then the number one culprit is a bad run capacitor, which costs around $175 to over $400 to replace if you were to call an HVAC technician. But replacing a capacitor in an air conditioner is an easy DIY fix with the part costing less than $20 from Amazon.

1. Turn off the thermostat, and you don’t really need to do this but I also turned off the breaker for the AC, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, disconnect the power going to the AC by disconnecting at the disconnect box located on the side of the house next to the AC! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Just grab the black handle and pull straight out. You can leave it out or turn it upside down and put it back in, which will keep the power disconnected. And you can see that OFF label is now upright instead of inverted.The ac panel where you see wires going into the ac is where you’ll find the electrical components and the capacitor.

2. The silver-colored cylindrical part is the capacitor. Unscrew the bracket holding the capacitor in place.

3. Take pictures of how the wires are connected to the terminals, so that you can see exactly which wires should be connected to which terminal on your new capacitor.

4. It’s highly recommended that you discharge the capacitor just in case there’s some charge left in it after the power was turned off to still shock you. The capacitor has 3 terminals labelled FAN, HERM and C. Discharge the capacitor by taking a screw driver with an insulated handle and touching it to the c and the herm terminals at the same time and also touching it to the c and the herm terminals at the same time while holding on to the plastic handle and not touching the metal part of the screw driver. You would discharge a capacitor while it’s still connected to the wires in the AC unit.

TUTORIAL ON CAPACITORS: These capacitors help the motors do their job. Here’s a capacitor with a negative and a positive terminal, but the run capacitor in an AC unit has 3 terminals and that’s because it’s a dual capacitor, a capacitor that is actually 2 capacitors in one and can support not 1 but 2 electric motors. In the ac, that would be the compressor motor and the fan motor. The 3 terminals on a dual run capacitor are labelled HERM, FAN, and C. HERM denotes hermetic compressor and this terminal is where the wires to the compressor motor are connected, the terminal labelled FAN is where the wires to the fan motor are connected and C stands for common, as in common feed, and this terminal is connected to the contactor and the common leg of the power supply.HERM = hermetic compressorFAN = fanC= common The wires get connected to these prong and more prongs allow more wires to be connected to a terminal. You just need to make sure the wires are connected to the right terminal and it doesn’t matter to which prong in that terminal.

HOW TO ORDER THE RIGHT CAPACITOR FOR YOUR AC: Now let’s go over the specs on a capacitor. you are going to see numbers followed by what looks like letters u and f, this is actually a Greek letter mu, which is a symbol for micro and f stands for farads, so this dual capacitor, which is like 2 capacitors in one, has a capacitor that is rated as 5 microfarads for the smaller fan motor and a capacitor rated 40 microfarads for the larger compressor motor. You also have the votage of the capacitor and 370VAC tells you that the voltage of this capacitor is 370 volts. you can use the model number to buy the exact same capacitor from the same maker but you don’t have to get the exact same capacitor as long as the ratings of your new capacitor are the same as the ratings of your old capacitor with respect to the uFa rating and the voltage. Now it’s ok to replace a capacitor with a new capacitor that has a higher voltage and/or higher uF rating but you shouldn’t go lower. My capacitor cost $12.99 plus tax from Amazon but they range from about $10 to $25.

FULL DISCLOSURE and DISCLAIMER: The links above are affiliate links, which means that I could earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links (with no extra cost to you). Also, because sellers can run out of inventory or change prices at their whim, I cannot guarantee the availability of the item or that the price will remain the same as what i had paid.