How many of these issues have you experienced? If you found this helpful, if you could let me know by leaving the video a like and leaving me a comment letting me know. Thanks a lot!

I live in AZ and have done HVAC for 40 years. In my opinion, some of what he's saying is correct. Having a clean coil, drain and changing the filters regularly are no brainers. Using a coil cleaner of any type is not a good idea because I don't care what they say, they deteriorate the aluminum fins and there's not much there to begin with anymore. Even the mfg's will say to not use coil cleaners typically and only use water. Even aluminum 'brighteners' take some material away and often that's what they're using rather than real 'cleaner' because the end result is more impressive and shiny. It's 'value perceived' for the customers. There's 'acidic' and 'non-acidic' coil cleaners. Acidic are for commercial applications where they can be rinsed away easily with non-acidic for residential. Both need to be rinsed very, very well to prevent some of the cleaner from laying in the end rows of the coils and continuing to eat away at the aluminum which is very common. Best not to use them at all. With drains, more often than not, there is a tee/vent in the drain line after the trap so if you don't plug the tee with a piece of tape or something, you're not sucking anything out of the trap, which is the point. The contactor he's has in his unit is call a 1.5 or a 1+ shunt contactor. Only one side is switched so there is one side/leg of power there at all times unless the disconnect is out or the breaker is off. He's not using his meter right to read voltage. If he were to go to ground with one probe and the other on the right/non-switched leg he'd see there is 120V there. And he doesn't know the condition of the contacts in the contactor because he didn't remove the cover and inspect them. VERY IMPORTANT in older units. The bar/contacts will burn and you won't see it coming if you don't look. Checking continuity/ohms on the contactor coil is pointless and ambiguous because you don't know the ohm rating and aren't typically going to call or email the mfg to find out, unless you're a nut. Just read the 24v coming from the t-stat and know it's present. If you've got 24v and it's not closing, the contactor is bad. He's starting at the end and working backward rather than reading low voltage going in to assure it's there first. I don't like the way he's pulling the spade connectors on the end of the wires off of the terminals. You don't wiggle them, you pull them straight off. Otherwise you're bending them and they won't reconnect as tight and that can mean trouble down the road. Electrical connections, particularly any of those going to the compressor, have to be tight to prevent them from getting hot and burning off. Good connections are very, very important from the breaker to the disconnect to the unit. These are the reason many capacitors fail. Capacitors are junk anymore. Once they removed PCB's, in the late 80's I think, that ruined the program. I still have some from prior to the change that are still in value. Now, if that cap gets hot for any reason like a bad terminal or you lose a condenser motor, it's going to go out of value in the next few weeks. Seen it hundreds of time. If you lose a condenser motor that compressor cap is going to get hot and should be changed with the condenser motor and it's cap. Doesn't take much to ruin a cap now-a-days. And on an additional note, it's important to look inside of your disconnects for anything getting hot. There used to be a company called Connecticut Disconnect. Their disconnects would last 20+ years in most cases. They had dots of tar on the block you would pull out. If the tar was melted that showed that particular terminal was getting hot. More often than not simply bending the prongs that held the fuse would solve the problem. Their disconnects lasted so long they went out of business and now all we have is this chinese crap like he has. Make sure none of the plastic in these new ones is disfigured at all. That means it's getting hot and has to be replaced. No fixing these. I don't have a problem with people doing their own work. A lot of this stuff is simple. But what you and I see when we look in that control panel is completely different. That's why you pay me what you do. It's not what I do. It's what I know. When we service a unit we're looking at a lot more than what I've covered here. Keep doing what you can but every couple of years or so have someone that really knows what they're doing take a look at it. If you don't like the price you can always go and buy whatever you need and do it yourself. Avoid the large shops. Find a man that depends on his reputation to survive.

Good tips. TLDR: 1. Clean your condenser coils. 2. Change your air filter. 3. Cleanout your condensate drain using a shop vac. 4. Check your condenser contactor. 5. Check your run capacitor.

Well I followed your advice and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I usually have my HVAC but do it....for $100. It took me about 20 minutes. I used a couple of drops of Dawn and a little bleach in a spray bottle and my hose. Holy cow the amount of pollen and dirt that washed away was amazing! The hardest part was.getting the top back on, I had to have everything lines up and give it a nudge, but I did it. I'm a 69 year old woman and am happy I learned this. Thanks!!

DO NOT 🚫 use a pressure washer to clean your coils!!!

As an hvac technician. I tell my customers everything, heres why, im lazy and i dont want to do it. If you feel confident go for it. If you screw up, guess who has a bigger charge, and guess who also never gets blamed for it.

+1 for vacuuming out the condensation lines. You can usually find pieces at your home supply store (PVC pipe section) to make and easy adapter. Others may think blowing them out (compressed air, etc.) is a solution but DON'T DO IT! If your AC contractor was lazy when the house was built AND DIDN'T GLUE-UP THE CONDENSATION PIPES, blowing the lines to clear an obstruction may blow them apart in a wall or other inaccessible spot, which is a real bummer (ask me how I know).

Purchased: August 2022 - still works GREAT! kzfaq.infoUgkxxsUnXhGsSJLim_XnMHyQK0u3XVaW-CGn I live in a studio and during the summer it gets scorching hot - really old building with no ac units. I can’t express how EASY it was to install.This unit has been a life savior during the summer and some days during other seasons where it can still be a bit warm at night. In this small place is my friend, a husky, poodle mix and myself. We need AC - lolI don’t use the dehumidifier option - I’m not sure if it will leak in my house, since I did not install the small draining hose that came with it. May look into it late but I don’t worry about much humidity in the apartment.I don’t understand why the negative reviews since all things mentioned, I personally did not find issues with. Definitely worth it!

Note that some outdoor units are held in shape by the sheet metal top cover. When you pull it off, the unit will sag and go out of square. You'll have to struggle with it to get it back on. Don't force it; when you get the sides right, the cover will drop right into place. Put the screws in opposite each other rather than working your around.

Cleaning the coils is easy. There are a couple of things to be aware of. 1) Don't blast the coil with a high pressure jet of water. You'll bend the fins, blocking airflow. 2) Some condensers have the coil on all 4 sides, but 1 side is covered. As long as you have the power off, you should be in good shape, but be careful with the water because under that cover is also where your electrical connections are located. There could be a charge on the capacitor and also, you don't want a water drop left over that may be shorting 2 terminals when you turn the power back on. In this video, his connections are on the corner of the unit and you can get to all sides of the coil without removing the cover. Also, close the cover on your disconnect so that you don't accidentally spray water into it. It is still energized, it's just no longer sending power to the air conditioner unit. I can confirm, cleaning the condenser coil can make a huge difference in efficiency. It may cause the air coming out of the vents in the house to be a little bit colder than they were before the cleaning. If the thermostat doesn't cause the contactor to pull in, one thing to be aware of is that there may be a time delay, especially if the unit has be run recently or power to the thermostat had be lost and was just restored. This delay is usually 5 minutes and is there to keep from doing a hot start on the compressor before the low & high side pressures have had a chance to equalize.

In all my 35 DIY homeowner years it's almost always been the drain(condensate) line or the capacitor. Both, relatively easy fixes. Thanks for the reinforcement.

As always, excellent video. Old retired mechanical guy here. I worked with Trane Commercial Building Services for 44 years. I was a UA Local Pipefitter 725 Union member. I never worked in residential HVAC service, I specialized in starting up and commissioning 1000-5000 Ton chillers, cooling towers, chill water pumps, condenser pumps and airhandlers and overhauling this equipment once their time was up which is usually between 10-15 years. Your videos does help me a lot since residential are quite different than the equipment I repaired, since most of our equipment is 460 volt 3 phase we didn't use caps and our contactors were build into the chillers VFD unit. If I had a problem at home I would let one of my young appendices come over and he could get his practice, lol. Once again, thank you for the great job you are doing and helping folks out there save a few dollars doing simple repairs as long as your mechanically inclined.

You’re a good man, the world needs more honest people like you. Thank you for this information…

Do not trust the disconnect to cut the 220v to the condenser. I did HVAC for 25+ years. I’ve seen several times where someone had jumped out the disconnect. I always verify the power is cut by checking it with a multimeter. If the power isn’t cut, you could be seriously injured or killed. When picking a coil cleaner, look for one that is not acidic. The ones with acid can damage your coils. Just use a garden hose with a nozzle to rinse the coil. Do not use a power washer. A power washer will blow the fins on the coils apart. If your air filter gets too dirty, it can cause your blower motor to overheat and fail. The motor needs air moving over it to stay cool. A dirty filter can also cause your system to freeze. Do not run your AC when the outside temperature is below 70F. Some systems are equipped to run at low outdoor temperatures. Most residential systems aren’t. At worst, you can damage your compressor. At best, the system will freeze and you’ll have a mess when it thaws.

The contactor on the unit is shunted on the right and switched on the left. When there’s 220v present, both terminals on the right side of the contactor will be hot. The top terminal on the left will only be hot when the thermostat is calling for AC. When the thermostat is calling for AC, there should be 24v present on the the contactor side terminals. If you remove the wires from the side terminals with 24v present and they touch metal, you can short out the transformer or blow the low voltage fuse in your furnace or air handler

Absolurely awesome stuff! The air-conditioning industry is such a huge racket here in Florida, people getting ripped off everywhere you look, being told that their air conditioners are “dead” and need to be replaced when very often it’s just a $20 or $30 part that’s required. Thanks for educating us on all of this, it’s a huge help for us DIY homeowners. 👍🏼💥👏🏼👏🏼

My hvac is about 15 years old. I did about 90% of the work on it over the years to keep it running great. KZfaq saved me a lot of money lol. From changing the capacitors, fan motors, igniters for the gas heat… I did most of that myself.

Another HVAC tech here. I always advise homeowners on drain line service/maintenance, and to rinse their outdoor coils regularly. The other stuff you show here, no I don't tell homeowners how to do it. Why? Liability. I tell some stranger to open up their unit, and they break something or hurt themselves, they will blame me. "Well, he told me to do it..." If you don't rinse that coil cleaner off THOROUGHLY, it will destroy your coil, so just use water. You don't need a lot of pressure, just rinse it off a couple times a year. People also don't know how to use a multiimeter properly, yourself included. There's no voltage at the top of that contactor? Wrong, there was 120VAC. One side was shunted, so voltage is always present there. Meters read the difference in potential voltage, so electricity runs through the system and is backfed through the wire. Both sides have 120, so the difference in voltage is 0. Also, reading the bottom of the contactor like that will get you shocked for the same reason. If you lose a leg of electricity, either due to bad breaker/fuse or from the power company having an issue, there is still 120 and the meter will read it as 0. If you assumed there was no power there and touched any of those wires, you would be having a bad day, maybe your last. Use the meter to read each wire to equipment ground to be sure there is no power present. Never trust a circuit breaker. Verify with your meter. So it's not that we don't want you to know how to do these things, it's that people will hurt themselves. Including trying to follow bad or incomplete advice on KZfaq videos.

I like to replace run capacitors about every 5 years. They generally cost less than 2 filters. Sometimes a bad capacitor can cause fan motor damage, so it seems like a good investment to just replace them periodically.

Yes, as an HVAC tech I would love not having to run what I consider nuisance calls for capacitors, dirty condenser coils and such. I also don't like having to charge high prices for these calls to cover my overhead. So do it yourself on the easy stuff and when that doesn't seem to fix it then feel free to call a technician out. I'm sure we will all appreciate it very much.

Thank you for making this video. I'm a first-time homeowner who bought a brand new house in Aug of 2020. After 3 years, my NEW ac has already cost me $3600 in repairs and / or replacements of non-warrent parts. Edit: Added: Your capacitor ONLY cost ten or eleven dollars? I was charged $300 to have a new one put in, and another $300 to have a new resistor put in. My days of getting ripped off are OVER thanks to people like you who are kind enough to share their knowledge so I can educate myself.

I've learned to keep a spare capacitor handy. They don't fail often but when they do it might take days to get another one or get a tech to visit depending on the current conditions.

Great video! Last year AC technician ripped me off $400 dollars, this year I fixed more complicated issues myself and saved hundreds thanks to people like you! Knowledge is power and power to the people! Thank you!

I changed out my capacitor about 3 years ago and I added a hard start capacitor as well. One of the wires to the capacitor had been getting so hot it finally burned away the insulation. I made 2 equal length pigtails to replace the one wire. Resistance causes heat so the extra wire reduces the resistance. It’s been working flawlessly ever since. I bought a can of the coil cleaner but never used it. After watching your video I’m going to tackle the cleaning next weekend, including condensate and filter. Thanks for the video.

Here is some advice from a professional HVAC contractor. His filter advice is fine, not all condensate drains have a safety, but if water is coming out of your air handler, the shop vac method of cleaning is fine. The rest you should never do for your own safety, it requires a trained professional. Things to remember, don’t allow companies to rip you off, run capacitor generally cost about $20 or less and a company should not charge you more then double the price. Also with coil cleaning, just use a hose, do not attempt to take apart the unit. Most AC condenser never get that dirty and beside on commercial units I have never has to clean a condenser coil, it’s rare or has seen other contractors do it. Depends what part of the country you live in, but here in the northeast it’s rarely done. As for your condenser contacter, the only reason they are changed is because the contacts get pitted and worn, they almost never fail.

Settling on our new house in Florida this May 31st and have a friend in the same community that has told me one of the first things to do is get at least one replacement capacitor. Even though it's a new home build, get one on hand. Thanks for sharing!

I like the tip on using the shopvac to suck out the drains. I used to blow the line with compressed air, but using a vacuum is the best way to go.

I'm a snowbird in Florida and found out that my central A/C in NJ is not blowing cold air. I called two A/C contractors and both told me " Your Compressor is shot due to the age of the Unit". I asked them if they did a thorough check of everything.." Nope..just that your unit is old" . One company quoted me 6k and the other 11k for a new unit . I'm going back to NJ within two weeks and I will perform these tests myself. IMO , alot contractors today are out to make a fast buck. There are so many times I was told to Get a new machine, car or whatever else and get rid of it. I'm mechanicaly inclined and saved tons of money fixing it for peanuts. So thank you for this video and keep em coming. Subscribed !

new home owner here. wow. no AC two hours ago. now it's getting nice and cool. not sure what I fixed, but seems testing contactor manually kicked it on, and it runs great now. Also had the confidence to disassemble and clean the unit. THANKS!!!!!

Other than the contactor, I inform homeowners about how to do all these things. Maybe not the cap, unless they seem pretty technically inclined, or have done some kind of mechanical/electrical work. If homeowners would clean their own coils/condensate line, and change their filters, I'd have a much better summer. no more getting sprayed in the face with rusty water, or thawing out coils because their filter contains their 2 missing cats.

If you want to know if your contactor is bad regarding its contact points, test with a multimeter the voltage top to bottom on the left side, then the right, while running. If you read around 3 volts, it's time to replace.

You are hitting all the good topics for a home handyman.. Great content! Thanks

Thank you for your content. I am a new homeowner with gaps in my knowledge of how to manage many home care issues. I just discovered your channel today and have already found two of your videos helpful. You explain things very well.

About 10 years ago I arranged for an HVAC inspection by a local company. My system was running fine, but it was about 15 years old and hadn't been serviced since I bought the house, so I was interested in what the inspection would turn up. The technician quickly identified that the capacitor was not performing up to spec, the contactor was pitted, and that the power disconnect was damaged due to excessive heat. While I appreciated the assessment, his repair quote--$175 for the capacitor, $225 for the contactor, and $350 for the disconnect--seemed to be excessive, so I declined his repair quote...and his system replacement quote...and his pitch for a 20% discount in exchange for signing up for a $175 maintenance program. After I paid for the inspection (a $49 promo) and sent him on his way, I got online and confirmed that the parts could be had for much, much less. I ended up spending $25 for a capacitor and $20 for a contactor at a local appliance store (Amazon was even cheaper, but I chose to shop local), and another $30 for a disconnect box and replacement conduit whip at my local big box home improvement store. I then paid an HVAC tech freelancer 100 bucks to do the work, which he completed in less than an hour. That experience left me with a healthy amount of skepticism concerning service providers who take advantage of situations where customers are under pressure to get a non-working air system up and running asap.

Love the video! As a contractor the only thing I slightly disagree with is the lack of safety concern around checking voltage before disassembly. Removing the condenser top requires unwiring the fan motor from contactor and capacitor. What if the “last company out” bypassed the disconnect box? What if there is still power at the unit when an unsuspecting homeowner starts removing parts. I’d love to see some additional focus on verifying the unit is safe to touch or swap. Otherwise all is good! This will help rookie techs as well!

I am willing to fix anything short of the refrigerant. After I installed a soft start I realized how simple my HVAC system is and understand how it all works.

The cleaning part, some electric utilities will do this for free. They will clean the coils, blower fan, etc… They will also check refrigerant and top off if needed. Utilities call it an AC Tune-up. We have it here in Arkansas.

One important thing you failed to mention is that when taking the fan off the outdoor AC unit is to get at least 2 people to do it. On a lot of units the fan can be quite heavy and it is all to easy to damage fan blades or the outdoor coil. I'm a HVAC tech and had to pay for new fan blades out of my pocket. So I wait for help unless absolutely necessary.

I get the clickbait title, but the truth is most ac companies dont care whether you know any of this or not. When im on a service call I talk to the customer and explain a ton of things about their system to them that they dont know. I tell them how to clean their coils, and why the capacitor needs changed, and any questions they have. Theres no point trying to keep info from people it just makes you look like youre hiding anything. But in the middle of summer most companies are so balls deep busy that no ones going to care what you do and dont know, we are just there to fix the ac and move on to the next 5 calls you have after. But yes things cost more than if you do it yourself. It also costs more to go to a mechanic. It also costs more to have a company come put carpet in your house. There is a shop full of people behind the scenes that bring in zero income. Dispatch answering phones, accounting doing accounting, shop guys making metal, ect. Being the tech on the ground is what funds the entire company for the most part, as well as pays for your van, car insurance, gas, and health insurance for the whole company.

Wow! I have a little bit of background of electronics from working 20 yrs of radio maintenance in the AF. I had no idea how easygoing AC repairs could actually be. Thanks for giving me the confidence to do my own repairs from now on.

Videos like this are so valuable to those of us who are willing to try to troubleshoot things before calling in a professional. Like now for instance, air conditioner quit cooling. It’s Saturday and really hot here and I’m already imagining suffering through the weekend before someone can come. Then I remembered that last year same thing happened and as a result of my research then, and folks like you willing to share this kind of information, I’d discovered that one of the two outside fuses had gone bad (thank goodness for the fuse box with lights). I replaced it and bought an extra. Fingers crossed I hoped it was the same issue and it was. I’m not that much of an idiot that I don’t recognize my limitations.

Very good job. youre a good teacher. I wish more people would be honest and upfront with things. Plus this really protects the consumer from all of the crooks out there.

Just replaced my capacitor which fixed my A/C. Same day delivery from Amazon for the part and maybe 15 minutes total time. Saved $300-$400 dollars. I have always been a DIYer but KZfaq and people like you is a game changer. Thank you for your service to the people.

Good info young man!! Using our wisdom to keep my 5 AC units running smooth. Of course sometimes need to call in a pro but trying to minimize that expense.

This was incredibly helpful! I learned a lot about the contactor. I replaced my capacitor once when I was in my old house. But I just found one that was exactly the same as the old one. It's good to know what those numbers mean. 😅

Been in the business since 85 . I love to read the comments posted in your videos ! They are funny and entertaining 😂 .

I had my annual service performed on my AC unit today and the tech wanted to charge me $337 to change the capacitor. I asked him what the capacitor does, what specs my unit uses and to show me where the part was in my unit. He did everything and asked and showed me the connections on top of the capacitor, how to disconnect and connect them, and where the power shut-off was for my unit. I found my capacitor for $14. As soon as my part comes in I will be changing the part myself.

i was just quoted 950 dollars to replace the capacitor and clean the coils. This just saved me almost a grand

Bugs in the disconnect box ❗️ Many, many bugs caused a short and a fire inside the box. Cover of the box flew like 6 feet out. Super easy repair - went to Home Depot and for $15 got a new box. 😁

Thanks. EXTREMELY useful. I've watched many KZfaqs to diagnose & fix household, car, and equipment problems. I appreciated your Concise delivery and editing to eliminate the UUUUUMMMMS, Ya knows, and other annoying speech patterns. Thank you, too for using a tripod. None of that annoying bouncing camera BS! Keep up the good work! I will be installing the Slow Start add-ons to my 2 5ton units not only to save money, but to allow AC when running my standby generator.

Thank you for the info.

It's amazing with less than 20 minutes of youtube training, a person can charge 400 bucks for a simple repair. Shows how we've been getting price gouged. Time to spread awareness you can learn and do this for yourself.

5 great tips in 12 minutes ,clear concise to the point! The way it should be!

Make sure to clean the condensate drain first if the contactor won't turn on after the thermostat should have turned it on. The float switch might be preventing the thermostat system from running the condenser/fan

Great videos so far! Basics every home owner should be able to do! I had my ac unit replaced way back when and did replace the capacitor and cleaned the unit as mentioned here. The only thing I have yet to figure out is why I hear a loud buzz sound indoors as opposed to the outdoors when the unit kicks on.

Excellent video DIY for someone with my background that’s straight forward. Do feel that a lot of folks don’t understand the safety issues involved that cap really can zap you good even after it’s been unplugged

really good video... we just had our spring a/c checkup, but, if it was too expensive, I would use these tips to do it myself

I wanted to thank you for your video. Particularly for the two minutes where you showed how to determine if the contactor is bad. I tested my residence and it was 1 ohm. Ordered a $20 contactor and my air conditioner is working again. Watched a 40 comprehensive HVAC video that mentioned the contactor, but not how to test it. Without your video, it would have been a service call.

You just saved me a call to the repair guy.. in my case, it was the contactor ! The fan unit that was outside was not moving, i changed the fuse in the furnace, and then the capacitor and that did not fix the issue. Finally ended up replacing contactor and that did the trick ! Thanks a lot !

EXTREMELY HELPFUL! Thanks for taking the time to teach DIYers the basics. No longer will it cost me $$$ to have the HVAC serviced. Thanks again!

I'm stunned to learn how inexpensive a new capacitor is. Wow, the profit on that one replacement has been exponential for my former HVAC Co. Lol, now I see why the independent I hired to install my new HVAC wasn't very impressed when I mentioned the old one had a new capacitor he could salvage. He has a lot of very low income, elderly customers he donates salvaged parts to.

I recently had a weird failure where my system would use the emergency heat instead of the heat pump even when it was moderate outside. Eventually tracked it down to bent pins in the disconnect, where it made enough contact that all voltage measurements were good at the unit but it couldn’t carry enough current to start the unit.

Best videos I've seen on acs. Thank you for the way you explained it .. keep it simple and are very thorough much appreciated

Having a replacement capacitor on hand is a must. I moved into a new house during the middle of Covid and mid July my capacitor crapped out; due to supplly chain problems it took over 2 weeks to get one. That was a miserably hot 2 weeks

Excellent video. You have a very good understanding of the functions in a typical household hvac unit. The difference between you and average Joe is that most people find less headache in calling a professional to work on their system. I have always preferred to do good business with someone over a lifetime versus ripping them off once. Unfortunately many hvac companies prefer the opposite.

In Texas or most states that require a license you have to have a license or work for a licensed contractor to buy parts from a supply house. Remember you get what you pay for. If you miss wire something you could damage to the unit or hurt yourself. Don't do something you are not sure of

You are AMAZING! Single female who needs issues like this to be explained to me in what I call "idiot proof"... Thank you so much for taking your time to make this video. I look forward to watching all your videos...to help me in my home. Helene 💗

Thx for giving homeowners the confidence to work on stuff that they don’t know how to work on. Keeps guys like me working when they call us to fix they’re mess

They overcharge like hell. I get it I’m a tradesman myself but to swap a $15 cap that takes maybe 15 mins. Over $200 is a bit steep. I keep a spare. My cutout box was warping and they wanted $250. Home Depot gave me one for $25. If you’re handy enough and logical about working with wiring, keep some spare parts for less than $100. Cheaper than a July/August callout that may take a day or two for them to get around to you.

Great video! A couple follow up tips: When sucking out your condensate drain, its good practice to pour fresh clean water back into the evaporator pan (which leads to the drain) so that you can fill the trap back up. Sometimes if you have no water in the trap, the condensing water from the evaporator will not beat the static of the fan and stay in the pan, thus flooding out or tripping a pan cutoff switch. Also the trap being full prevents bugs and rodents from entering the drain from outside. Also when manually pressing a contactor, best to use something non-conducive to electricity, such as a pen or marker.

Thanks for that very helpfull video.

I cleaned my unit using your instructions! I had not had it cleaned since it was installed 5 years ago. It had lots of leaves in the bottom and coils were pretty dirty. Ok Im learning. I feel like the air is even cleaner in the house 😊. Thank you for your videos.

I can confirm this is all good info, also when ever you take the electrical cover panel off look at the capacitor for bulging, it can work fine but if it is bulging it is going to fail soon and if it pops it can cause a lot of damage, better off to just throw a $10 cap at it to be safe. Also as for the clogged condensate line I usually use compressed nitrogen and a hose (block around the hose with a rag) to clear them, I know a few guys that use water rams but that's like a $500 tool, an alternative if you have a small air compressor is pressurized air instead of nitrogen it will knock the clog out easy but be careful how much pressure you are building up in the pipe I don't want to hear about anyone bursting a drain line in a wall so you have been warned use at your own discretion, and don't completely block the hose end of the pipe that will allow you to push the clog but not pressurize the pipe too much.

Super dangerous without confirming power when you shut a system down

Good solid video. I change my filters monthly. I get the cheaper ones, and have two women, 3 cats and a dog in the house. All good stuff. My uncle and I put in my HVAC system in 17 years ago. just on our own. The house wasn't designed for central HVAC. I change out my capacitor every 2 years and keep older ones. Even though I keep a spare capacitor ready. While out of town AC went out and the wife paid about $250 - summer in Dallas, TX. So now I just save myself the headache I clean it all up. power wash it (outside) and change out the capacitor (every two years) if I'm already involved enough to turn the system off etc. then I might as well do it all. I'm planning on replacing my whole system. duct work and all. local pro companies are quoting 20-28k$. crazy. I can't get pricing legally in TX without a license. But I can get all the duct work etc. HVAC guys make a killing. I encourage young people to look at the trades for a profession. we're gonna need them.

Thanks for spilling the beans. No wonder my service calls has dropped. I heard homeowners intend to fix but end up getting hurt and make the problem worse. “Do not intend to fix your self, your going to make things worse and hurt your self” it’s high voltage.

Couple things here. You mentioned that you have seen quotes for up to $500 for a coil cleaning. Is that for a basic condenser coil cleaning like you demonstrated in the video? Or is that for an evaporator coil pull and clean? There is a huge difference. Next, what are you referring to that AC companies “don’t allow you to do”? Are you referring to refrigerant handling? If so, that has nothing to do with AC companies, it is federal law. There is nothing preventing anybody that wants to take/pass the EPA exam and get their card. They can then purchase all the specialty tools required to do open system work. At that point they would never have to pay an HVAC contractor again.

When manually closing the "contactor" ( a relay, actually), you need to keep in mind that , on many systems, there is a 5 minute timer ( or Anti-short cycle timer) which will prevent the compressor from re-starting again within 5 minutes of the last ON cycle. This has to do with the physics of the refrigerant, but it needs to be known, because a DIYer who manually pushes in the relay button once , may be tempted to push it again, just to confirm that it works as expected ( or just for fun ), and the second time, the compressor won't start. This could lead to some really big question marks and exclamation marks swirling over the DIY's head.

Have replaced capacitor about 3 times over the last12 years. 10 to 15 dollars each. One of these days this fix won't work, but for now keeps 30 year old AC running😊

Thank you when you talked about the contacts. I'm a women who doesn't do this but you made sense to me.

Read an article in Family Handyman a long time ago that said "just replace your contactor and capacitor every 5 years, as they tend to start failing in the 7+ year range". I spent $70 for both OEM parts 5 years ago (my capacitor is always expensive because it's a large capacitor), and just purchased another pair to replace again this July. Both of my neighbors had their capacitors fail a couple of years ago (when the houses were 8 years old. They spent about $400 on service calls and also had the stress of having no AC for the day.

Agree with all of this; however I've never noticed a difference with efficiency from cleaning my compressor coils so I rarely do it. I always keep a spare contactor and starter/run capacitor (most often) on hand just in case I have a problem in the heat of summer. Standard maintenance for me in northwest Florida is shop vac condensate lines in spring and sometimes fall.

Thank you so very much for posting this video. You gave me the knowledge and confidence to troubleshoot and fix my a/c today saving me hundreds.

It's not about ac companies not wanting you to know or how to do things. It's the people you're dealing with who are crooked. Also in terms of cost of things many people don't know what goes into the cost of running an ac business like trucks, gas, insurance the people running the office taking the calls. People need to give the honest AC companies more credit

I have an extra contactor and capacitor in my garage in case I need them.

Im a retired hvac/r contractor with 25+years in the biz...this is good advice as far as it goes but i dont suggest the homeowner do some of this just because the average homeowner can easily screw it up and make a little problem into a huge problem...as far as being ripped off by crooked ac guys, yep that happens...years ago the tv show 20/20 did an expose' on home repair ripoffs and focused on the a/c guys...one of the "suggestions" they made was to watch over the shoulder of the repair guy to keep him honest, which is a good idea even if you dont understand what he is doing..BUT YOU need to understand a trained HVAC/R tech could do things right under your nose to make your A/C fail HOURS OR DAYS after he leaves....

As a home owner. This is by far the best video I've seen so far. God bless you.

When I cleaned my coils recently, I removed the top/ motor, used a shop vac to clean out all the debris and leaves on the bottom and flushed out the drain holes. Then used a coil cleaner and let it sit for awhile. Then flushed out from inside out all the coils until they were clean. We have a 6 year old Bryant 3ton, 16 seer unit and a 80% Bryant furnace. In Oklahoma we don’t need a 95% furnace. I regularly clean the coils from the outside about once a month, especially through the long term heat wave in triple digits for the past 6-7 weeks.

You are a really good teacher. I am learning a lot. Thanks!

Thank you. You have real balls covering so much. Capacitors, used to be called condensers, can hold a nasty charge that is dissipated all at once. (That is how they help start the motor) this video is for "Educational purposes only" Replacing and programming controller boards is another step up for heat pumps.

Thank you! I like when customers try diy things first) then I have some real problem to fix

Not mentioned anywhere in the video: Large capacitors are dangerous! They can hold and deliver a lethal charge (i.e. they can kill you). For safety, the average homeowner should wear non-conductive gloves when discharging a large capacitor until a multimeter reports that a minimal charge is stored in the capacitor before handling it. If you are a homeowner and want to work on your own appliances, a multimeter is a must-have. While Fluke is what the pros use, any $35 multimeter will work just fine. Also not mentioned: There is probably an A/C parts store in your local community that all of the A/C pros in the area go to for their parts. If your run capacitor blows out, drive down to the parts store for the part you need and get your A/C working again within an hour for $20 instead of waiting 24-48 hours for an A/C repair tech to come in the middle of summer temps and do the same thing and charge you $200+ for the visit and the part.

The main issue with contactors is that the electricity arcs every time it makes contact. Over time, it builds up carbon on the contact points and won't make good contact anymore. Replace them at that point.

Thanks for this comprehensive video. There's no reason why us laypeople cant do our own maintenance and basic troubleshooting, but it's no substitute for certified HVAC trchnicians. Thanks for keeping us cool.

Shop vac for the condensate line is a great idea. It naturally limits the amount of pressure applied to clear a clog. Some people recommend compressed air / nitrogen, which might cause damage if not applied carefully.

Keep up the good videos. I'm an HVAC contractor. They're accurate enough, for sure. I'm not kidding, this is some good info here. And you're gonna keep guys like me, and Drs the ER, in business for a loooooong time encouraging the average homeowner to pop the fan housing and electrical cover off the most expensive piece of equipment in their home and fiddle with the high voltage highest amperage equipment in their home!

Thank You Sir for your videos. They're no nonsense and have the right amount of information to feel comfortable as a diy. I look forward for the next project I can tackle with the knowledge shared on this channel. Y'all stay Cool out there!

A/C companies yell "You should not perform your own maintenance" but they did this to themselves. A rental house the a/c broke mid summer they quoted me over $500 to fix. I ended up fixing it for 11 dollars with a new cap from amazon. Screw these a/c companies.

I worked in Electrical work for 12 years and another 12 years in Apartment Maintenance, this guy speaks the TRUTH. AC companies are generally dishonest, find and honest company for your repairs.

Insider pro tip here. The service tech that will show up is obligated to up sell every call to keep their job. Just keep that in mind when we show up.