Thx for sharing your vast knowledge and experience!! God bless!!

Watched this Video, checked my drain. It was plugged up, blew air and pushed water through the drain pipe - cleared it up, restarted the unit and BAM - back in business. YOU ROCK!

I noticed my condenser short cycling last night while I was putting out my debris fire. It was so cold, I had to break ice out of the hose to get water flow. I found your video last night and took notes this evening. This is a great resource and I now have a decent checklist to start troubleshooting in the next few days. For now, I'm burning fuel running our gas logs and keeping the downstairs unit turned down to avoid potential damage to the unit. For anyone who hasn't yet watched, be sure to catch his joke at the end.

Thank you! I went through the most things you described. Batteries, thermostat, loose wires, control board, tested a capacitor, was going to open the duct to check coils thinking it's either compressor, fan motor or leak. $$$$. Then I checked a contactor plunger and there was a fried bug or a cockaroach, preventing plunger from making a contact. I pulled it out, and my ac finally started working! I was going to sleep in my basement this night, the temperature went to almost 30 degrees. You saved me a few hundred bucks, thanks a lot!

Omg solved it in the first 2 minutes. Jiggled the wires in the thermostat and it fixed. You just saved me the $75 payment on my home warranty plus a half day of missed work. Bless you

Great video Jay! My problem was a clogged condensation drain. You saved me a service call and most likely a huge bill. You are the man! I was able to fix it without breaking a sweat!!!!

I had a commercial tenant that had a short cycling issue, then a few days later , I noticed that it was running normally. But I knew she didn't call a tech to repair it because she is cheap as hell. I took the panel off the condensing unit and saw that some Einstein wedged the contact down . Problem solved until I took the wedge out. I told her " Your not going to burn my building down to stay cool." You never know. Greetings from NYC. Keep up the good work!!

Excellent ,this 74 year old Tech. was reminded what he forgot... Great advice..Blessings TR

This guy is awesome, I have watched his videos regarding other HVAC and Hot Water Heater repairs. This morning I had to address an A/C Condenser with short cycle symptoms his insight got me through it again. Thank you for your help video

I opened my thermostat and it was very dusty/dirty. I cleaned it but that didn't stop the short cycling.I am going outside now to stare at the unit and hope it speaks to me because I have no knowledge at all about HVAC. I figure I'll be a pro after I watch all of your videos! What a great service you provide! Thank you!

just by sifting through the comments, i was able to resolve my a/c's short cycling issue, by rigging my thermostat batteries with some tin foil, since it was showing a "replace batteries" message, and i have no AA's. the unit is running better than it has in weeks. bravo to this channel and its commenters.

Followed all the steps you mentioned and it worked. You're a life saver Sir

broooo! you have some of the best content on hvac I've found so far. This is like a goldmine of information for me as I'm about to start my hvac program next year in school. Thank you so much for the easy to understand and detailed information and also making learning a bit more fun/exciting

I cannot say thank you enough. Being a woman trying to take care of her home and not get ripped off, you have been so helpful.

Rewatching the video and taking notes as I would like to enroll in HVAC next semester and I hear about a lot of bad professors. Learning on your own is the best.

Very good thank you. The only thing lacking was describing what a compressor side issue vs control side issue vs blower issue. Isolating these areas would help and save a huge amount of time troubleshooting. Add power :: breakers and fuses to that list. Just my 2c from the engineering side.

You are the best Hvac videos on the Internet thank you much

Thank you so much . For sharing your knowledge. Guys like you help people avoid getting ripped off on unnecessary repairs . God bless

Thanks!!! Mine was my thermostat. The battery was corroded and the terminal on the circuit board had allot of corrosion on it as well. Cleaned everything up and bam!! No more short cycling. Thanks man. You saved me a service call and who knows what they would’ve claimed was the issue and tried to over charge me in the process 😅.

Sir love your videos, I'm almost a pro now with all the issues I've had. I talked with you about the contactor not pulling in consistently. Turned to be a faulty contactor. Changed and now I'm all good now. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the video, I changed the batteries on the thermostat and it started to work again.

Thanks for all the helpful information!

A technician came to my house said it was the fan engine and quote me $395, so I don’t know anything about ac units so I assumed that it was a fan, so he supposed to come tomorrow to install the new fan, well guess what I changed the batteries on my thermostat and all of the sudden the broken fan started to work, and it’s been working for the last 6 hours, on off, on off, I canceled the tech work order and you saved me some bucks and I appreciate it!!!

My problem was the safety switch ,water wasn’t draining out from the unit . Glad you mentioned it I’ve would have never guess it.

Thanks for all of your information. Last week I had new service lines installed because I had a leak underground, men didn't put a filter drier because they didn't have one on the truck. Next day unit blowing hot air, a different service man came and found that the condenser seal was blown and lost all gas. 2 days later he came back with a new condenser and installed it and also a filter drier, unit seemed to be working fine. Next day unit was short cycling, I replaced the thermostat, still no good. A new A/C tech came out ( same company) as soon as I told him what was happening he said, "sounds like it's overcharged". He drained and weighed all freon and we found that, my unit called for 4 lbs 2 oz, he pumped out 7 lbs, 8 oz. He then pulled a vacuum and recharged system with proper amount of freon and unit still working fine, you can add that problem to your list. If you have any comments about what happened here, please let me know. Thanks again. What would cause the condenser seal to blow? That would be a good video. :-)

Awesome video as usual! Thank you for posting! Two more things I can think off the top of my head: Blower motor not working can cause LPS to trip, and a compressor or fan delay board in the condenser could cause short cycling as well.

Just want to say you're awesome, thank you so so much for all your work and time that you put in your videos. They have saved me and my family so much money and I love learning how got fix my own stuff.

Men , you are the best. Am new tech. Today we went out PM job, one of the condenser unit has short cycling issue, sure enough, after I heard you , we checked the thermostat, change the battery, the problem solved. Thanks 🙏 V M

You are wonderful for sharing your knowledge with us struggling with one or more of the problems you hit on.

I can't believe you have described perfectly my current issue: #7 14:00 my fan motor spins for like 20 seconds, giving me hopes that it'll work, shuts down and compressor starts making a HUGE NOISE, I jumped out I thought it was going to explode, the hissing noise was loud as hell. its an old house the unit is probably 10+years old, we go visit 2-3 times a year, so we got surpised that the unit was not pumping cold air. I'm about to start investigating using your videos, I suspect is the capacitor, as I everything was working just fine but the fan motor just stopped spinning. I gave it a small push with a screwdriver, it worked for 10 seconds and stopped and again the compressor noise. wish me luck!

You seriously saved me, got a $700 electric bill in the mail and I live alone and I’m never home… my thermostat is at 68 in winter…. I was laying in bed and heard the 10 seconds of short cycling. After pulling wires and removing and putting the thermostat back in, it stopped!!!!

Great video! An odd short-cycle phenomenon I recently experienced was caused by a bad ECM, that resulted in the blower coming off and on after a couple of seconds. The blower would run fine when the panel to the air handler was off. As soon as you put the panel back on, the blower would turn off and begin short-cycling. The tech and I were both stumped as there were no obvious shorts. The ECM was replaced about six months ago so we just assumed the ECM might have gone out of spec somehow but still appeared to work - the air pressure change that occurred when the panel was put back in place somehow affected the ECM. I replaced the weird ECM and the short-cycle went away.

Thank you very much. Not sure if it’s the final fix but I checked my batteries in my thermostat. It’s Sept. 2019 and the AA batteries were March 2014!!! My A/C was kicking off a couple minutes after turning on. In any case you helped me remove one more potential problem! Thank you!

Wow your information on AC is awesome it was so easy to understand . Thank you so much 💓 My problom was my AC keept turning on and off and it was set 77 and room temperature is 77 it keept turning on and off. It was the Battersies

Thank you so much. I went outside with some cleaning spray. Sprayed thru the vents, got a water hose and spared behind the cleaner and BAM FIXED👏👏👏👏👏

Bro thank you so much. Condenser would not start up and I couldn’t figure out why. Turned out it was a bad breaker on the system. Changed and running good. If thing ever goes down I know what list and video I will use to fix my system!!! 🎉🎉🎉

You rock! Thank you for your advice! I checked the thermostat and the batteries were not connecting properly - i pushed them together and put some tape to hold the in place - and the short cycling stopped. It's a temporary fix until I get a repairman out to replace the thermostat. Thank you for you help!

Thanks for such a great library of helpful videos. Last Summer I detected a strange noise in my AC unit. I believe it was short cycling. I called a person to inspect the unit and as usual, the recommendation was to replace the unit without telling me what the problem was. I decided not to do anything until this coming Summer. Spring came with some hot days, and then I realized that the fan condenser motor was not working, so I replaced it using your very helpful video including the capacitor. Thanks, BTW because it is running very well. However, the short cycling came back to my memory and I have been trying to fix that unsuccessfully. Thermostats are working correctly. I can see the condensation in the AC unit pipe. I have checked the A-coil, it was clean, but I cleaned and verified any plugs. The air filter is brand new. I really don’t know where to find the solution. When I checked the delta Temperature, I found something unusual. Thermostat calls for cooling, and the AC unit starts cooling down until supply temperature reaches 37F, which is low. The return air is 60F, which means the delta temp is 23F. At that moment the board LED starts green flashing, which is an indication that the zone sensor exceeds the low limit in cooling. The AC unit is off while the blower keeps operating. DATS is working correctly. After 2.5 or 3 minutes the LED is solid again, then the AC unit starts cooling again. This cycle continues over and over. The board is receiving 24 Volts from the transformer. I have not idea what is causing that the temperature drops to 37 F, or if the board has a problem. Any recommendation or instruction that I am missing. Thanks a lot

Just keep expanding my HVAC knowledge with this guy.

Hi! I recently had a new a/c installed and it has been short cycling.. the vents and t'stat locations are unchanged, so it was making me a little nuts to diagnose the problem... yesterday i had an “ah-ha” moment! The new a/c is throwing more cfm's... so now it's shooting the cold air further towards the t'stat, causing it to think, " brrrr, it's cold in here... i better shut down the machine." The installer had mentioned that he had the blower motor set on the highest speed , so tomorrow (if i remember) I'll lower it to the 3rd (of 4} speeds... Your videos helped me to put the pieces together... thanx again, Don in Floriduh...

Great point about the evaporator coil, I never considered that.

Excellent information. I had my entire system replaced in April 2024, and I suspect that my smhort cycling is either due to the system being oversized (Manual J calcs were done), and/or the blower speed is set too high. The air sounds at the returns and through the vents is noticeably louder than my previous system. My HVAC contractor is coming out today to reduce the blower speed.

Magnificent. I am a total novice to Ac repair, at least I can be aware of all the things I can have checked before I look to buy another unit. Corvid 19 time is not an easy time. Thank you Sir.

Thank you very much God bless you sir!

Good morning Jay, another great video it’s easy to follow a lot of people appreciate your knowledge.And it’s enjoyable to watch they enjoyed your teaching Ty.

As usual very educational, I really like the way he explains things, thanks.

It was my thermostat. We’re in a heat wave and you just saved me.

Thanks for taking the time to make your videos. I'm devouring them.

not just technical, but very useful

That is a very simple yet detailed cause and effect problem shooting tutorial! I have learned what I really needed, to understand my problem.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. VERY HELPFUL, INSPIRING AND ENJOYABLE. GOD'S MERCY, BLESSINGS AND GRACE TO ALL.

Informative video. My furnace short cycles but it does it on it's own without hitting the set temperature and sometimes it will just keep running. I'm going to check for loose wires.

Like always I love this video you explain everything the best out of everybody that be online. Your videos really help me out so much I been in the field a little over a year now and learned so much from you

Awesome info. Thank You. Our unit just started this today. Of course it happens on the first 102 degree day in two years. Batteries are changed, we do that anyway when we change the fire and CO detectors'. Filters are brand new. Short cycle still happening. Too late in the day to open up the outside unit. Tomorrow, so much for that day off. I will let you know what we find. Thanks again, stay safe, Semper Fi.

You sir are theeee man! Thank you so much for such a detailed and thorough yet concise video. Im in Miami, Saved me a hot night of sleep and $$$. Came home to ac short cycling, reviewed reasons you outlined, drain pipe sensor, full of water and ofcourse pipes were clogged. Cleaned them out and back to working condition. 👍👍👍

Excellent video, excellent information, excellent presenter 👍👍👍

Great context. I have done everything except the board. Thanks so much

WOOOHOOOOO reading through these comments and was on the condensation line/clogged line being full of water and emptied some of it into a bucket and my A/C triggered on right away...I just saved so much money cause of you and my dad left for vaction the day this happened so I wouldve been left with heat if you didnt make this video🤙🏼

new on hvac thanks so much the vids, they been soooooo much help

Thanks mate great job saved me a heavy bill! mine was just a case of filters clogged kept going on short cycle working fine now thanks alot

Thank you, it was the batteries in the thermostat, thank you again 😊

Great video (as usual!) I have a weird issue with short cycling. The AC will work for 3 or 4 hours straight then starts to short cycling.... I have a nest and first I haven't connected the C wire. I did connected it since and everything was well until 3 days later it did it again. I checked voltage on the contactor (good), I changed the contactor against a new one (good). Of course it is happening when it's 100F outside... not a good time to go to the furnace to check wires, that will be my next step though. I'm not sure what to do wires are properly set though. Where do I go from there? Haven't seen any ice, A coils are clean and condenser unit as well. New air filter. Nothing I can see which is obvious.

Thank you Jay! While I could have saved a couple hundred bucks more your excellent video potentially saved me thou$ands. My condenser would cycle on and off constantly and with the heat wave we've been having around here and the age of our system we were very anxious about what it would cost to repair it. I had done the same thing to an older refrigerator a couple of years ago including adding a hard start kit but after a week the compressor itself just died so I was thinking this might happen with our A/C condenser. After reviewing your top 10 failure reasons (and replacing the batteries in my thermostat) I did finally observe that the fan wasn't spinning so using an old yardstick I got it spinning and even though it was running slow it ran enough to stop cycling off and the house was cooler. Anyway, I called a guy in to look at it and told him that I had done my own investigating and thought that it might be the capacitor which is exactly what it turned out to be. I would have done this repair myself but my wife didn't trust me enough and wanted a pro. While it did end up costing us $280. at least he wasn't tempted to upsell us or try to BS us into spending more than I had to, so thanks!

You are absolutely right. my air conditioner was short cycling I replace the batteries and change the filter works great. PS. It felt really good to cancel the service repair.lol

Great tips. Thanks for what you do and sharing your knowledge 👌🏾🙏🏾

Excellent troubleshooting diagnosis list of potential issues...nice job

только наш человек может так всё роскрыть и розложить по полкам. молодец 👍 респект

Thanks, just saved a lot of money, mine was number nine

You speak up Like a master!

Great video,you have great teching skills.

You are awesome, right to the point, change my batteries as I should do that every year around this time! Thank you so much I really appreciate you you are the best on this KZfaq...

Very well done presentation. Appreciated your video.

Very detailed explanation....keep it up Master

Very interesting explanation!

Thank you for this very informative video. Our ac short cycles quite often and I noticed this am it came on when the house was 72 degrees but the thermostat was set at 75. I had to manually bump the temp up . Very strange.

Great video. I just have a suggestion for a couple of scenarios. To buy and replace a contactor, and a capacitor, how do we go about buying the right component for each. Thank you. 😊😂

I am hvac student I learned a lot of thing from your videos please make a video about defrost how it works

Thanks man!

Wow very thorough and well explained - awesome - thanks!

In my case the yellow wire on the thermostat was broken and the unit was overcharged ... Thank you for the video

Thanks for sharing. Lots of info.

Thank You! Very good information. I've been suspect of the thermostat and or low voltage from the power company. Usually starts short cycling at 6:45 A.M. and again at 5:30.P.M. I'm thinking I'm at the end of the power grid 6:45 electric hot water is coming on because it's shower time before work then 5:30 home from work shower and electric stove time. 🥶

Thank you so much , excellent video ,,, you are the best!!!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👌👌👌👌👌👌

Thank you! Your video helped me solve my problem!

You my friend are a wealth of information. Thank you. Great video.

Great video man love the way you explain everything in your videos so keep up the good work 👍👍

And one time,at band camp........😂 Good info dude

Your videos are on point,what makes an evaporator inside the house turn on and off like between 1 to 3 seconds

Really great video, well explained and easy to understand and follow. I was hoping to find the answers to my issue but not quite. Here is my AC issue and if you or someone has experienced the same I would appreciate it if you could lead me to a possible solution. When I turn it on the AC attempts to start and I can hear and see the contactor open and close for a 1-2 seconds, the fan starts during this 1-2 seconds and it stops (it never takes off completely) then everything stops. If I press the button on the contactor and keep it pressed (pushed in) the AC starts to run normally. That made me believe that the contactor is the problem. I replaced the contactor, the capacitor, the fuse in the air handler. Electricity is fine, circuit breakers are not the issue (they never trip). Drain line is clean, filter is clean, evaporative coil is clean. I am running out of ideas. Any advise I can get I would appreciate it very much. Thanks.

This is like the Mattix. Downloading ten years of tips in ten minutes

Amazingly helpful ! ! So much great information !

Excellent video

Love your videos so helpful thank you so much😊

After listening to this Thermostat problems, along with Coils, I want to have all Condensers Off Roofs. These make too much noise. After a while, you're unable to clean this unit. Then you hear noises thinking it's coming from your system. This can and did cause a leak within my drywall. Someone went on my Roof, and dropped an instrument, creating a slow leak, which took over a year to find. "Found!" Cost was enough. Management was uncaring all through this horrible experience. I also want all Coils made as you can P/U. like a T.V. Again, clean it yourself. The only need would be inside the A/C unit. Then you'll need an A/C Technician, which are "Dime a Dozen!" This is another hardship. Paying Top Dollar, for less than knowledgeable. Each & Every A/C Technician must take a Test to keep their license up to date with an understanding of New Units along with parts. Why should a Coil have any bend units? No one touches a Coil other than a A/C Technician. I find that the soap that is used is made cheap. It should clean like degreaser. All this caked on dirt should be cleaned better. Then Sanitize for a better smell. You need to find that right Company, then you'll be much happier. Thank You;

Thank very good explanation

Thankyou for all this good intel.

Thanks alot very informational

Amazing video… thank you

Hi Jay. I love all of your videos. I a able to fix a lot of my problems with you by my side. However, I am haveing a bit of an issue that I am not sure if it is aproblem or not. I have a heat pump with electric furnace. Recently I obtained an energy monitor system and I noticed that my Furnace when it kicks on, it draws like 10kwh some times for 2 mnutes but some times for 10-11 minutes. Thi I found it was because of the Aux that comes on and It does it at least once an hr. I have check and replaced the following, some as a PM and some as part of trying to see what is ging on. 1- Outside and inside unit Capacitors 2- Outside and Inside Unit Defrost Circuit Brd. and Furnace fan Circuit brd. 4-Filter replaced 5-Contacted an HVAC person and he found low refrigerant (Aded almost 2 lbs) 6- replaced the Thermostat Nothing seems to point out why the aux come on automatically Even though it is like 45-50 degrees outside, still does it. Also, the unit seems to cylce on-off every 6-10 mionutes. more often like off for 6-9 minutes and on for like 9-20 minutes. Is that normal? Any help would gereatly apprecitate it. Great job and hopefully you can help me

Window units freeze for 1 of 2 reasons 1. The unit develops a small leak over time and the freon which has leaked out is now replaced with air...which contains water...the water particles will freeze and inevitably the evaporator will freeze over. 2. The most common cause for window units to freeze over is a dirty evaporator...air is drawn into the front of the AC and pulled across the cold evaporator and is discharged through the fan but if the evaporator fins are clogged with dirt/dust it stops circulation. Again the fan draws air in the front and across the evaporator and is discharged into the room and by the process of discharging this cold air it also prevents the evaporator from freezing. But without air flow the evaporator can't displaceit's it's cold temperatures and when idle or without air blowing the coldness away it freezes over...don't throw away that window unit...clean the evaporator coil and the condensing coil and she will work like new. An excessively dirty fan will also cause poor operation as the fan motor isn't designed to carry the extra weight of the dirt which is usually more like moldy Mudd and won't spin at it's design speeds and when the fan slows down so will the efficiency or both the condenser and evaporator