Don’t throw out your beer fridge or dehumidifier without checking this!

[@SVImpavidus]

A most comprehensive explanation of induction motors which was short and sweet. "If you know how it works you know how to fix it". A good example of this philosophy. too many things are thrown away because folks dont know how it works yet are more than capable of doing their own repair. Sail Safe mate. Ant & Cid. PS we have a vid coming up in a week or two your going to like. Electronic Digital Thermostatic Controllers......

[@ThePracticalMechanic]

Great diagnostics and repair. Thank you for the lesson. My parent’s central air unit stopped working early last summer. One hvac tech said it needed a new unit installed. Keep in mind this unit is only 4 yrs old. I stopped by to checked it out and the capacitor was bad. No local store had one so I ordered from Amazon and had a replacement in 2 days. Works perfect now.

[@spelunkerd]

Yes, likewise I had a similar experience with a heat pump, and I did a video of that diagnosis and repair a couple of years ago. Similar to here, it was the run cap. Some of these have a starting circuit where the start cap is pulled out of the circuit with a current relay, PTC relay, potential relay, or even an old school centrifugal switch. There is also the option to boost starting with a hard start kit that does the same thing. In the end, with both of those repairs I simply replaced what was bad and moved forward.

[@malibuman8941]

Your scientific explanations are fabulous and go thru all the details down to as to why we need an cap that's rated much higher than the line voltage.

[@stuzman52]

I do not know why I don't receive any notifications from your channel. In fact, there are a lot of channels I don't get notifications. I came over to see if you've done anything recently and sure enough, you got a video. You did a great job describing how the PSC motor works and how to check the dual run capacitor. The only critique is that when you zero the meter for a low resistance check, you want to short the leads together and then hit the REL button to zero out the lead's resistance. Have a good one Dave!

[@spelunkerd]

That's a good point about holding the leads together while pressing the rel button. If you rewind the video to just after 6:50 you'll see I was holding the two leads together at the instant I pressed that button. I'm guessing the value danced a little after that because the lead contact wasn't perfect. It's nice to hear from you, Terry. With Google AI making decisions about what we want to see, the whole dynamics of subscriptions and what is offered up on the home page has shifted. Cheers!

[@stuzman52]

@@spelunkerd You are correct Dave! I went back and reviewed the video and you did have the leads shorted before you pressed the button. Maybe there was a lag in the video. In any event, again, great work!

[@kevindanahy4665]

Thanks very much for this interesting and beneficial video. I'm glad that I didn't throw away my inoperable dehumidifier.

[@shawnmrfixitlee6478]

I have had many AC units that had bad caps , This vid should help a lot of people out ! 👍👍

[@dwoodog]

Thanks, and easy to understand. Keep making videos.

[@MrTweetyhack]

thank you!

[@wtbm123]

Cool

[@retireditguy9493]

Great video! Many people assume that electronic components either work or fail, but do not wear out similar to mechanical devices. That is mostly true but there are electronic items that do wear with use. Capacitors are one example. I live in Southern California and have two 23 year old 3 ton air conditioners cooling my home. Each year I measure the capacitance of the split compressor/fan capacitors. They generally need replacement after about 5 years along with the accompanying contactors.

[@spelunkerd]

Great point about routine maintenance. As you say, when one part goes bad, it's not uncommon for other parts to get taken out with them, especially if the unit is limping along trying to cope. Even if the pump eventually spools up, there is a price to pay in the form of heat damage from the higher, longer, and more frequent current spikes. Your point about the contactor is spot on. Wear at the contactor could introduce incoming voltage drop into the equation, so the pump responds the only way it can, by increasing current for longer to achieve breakaway torque.

[@zx8401ztv]

A smashing tutorial and you have saved the de-humidifier :-D I'm sure your tutorial will help a lot of people. Similar to my old wolf bench grinder, i didn't have a ideal run start capacitor so i used two smaller ones in parallel and 20 years later it's still going.

[@spelunkerd]

Yes! As you know, parallel caps add, as opposed to series caps that actually subtract, in a strange counterintuitive way. It's amazing to see the variance in designs. It's so nice to hear from you.