Transcription
I've been to quite a few calls this year where the AC was tripping the breaker. So, I thought I'd make a video of 10 reasons why your AC can be tripping your breaker. I'll start off with the most common one.
Unfortunately, this is the worst scenario as well, but I see this the most. So, the most common reason for your AC tripping the breaker is unfortunately a shorted out compressor. And to check that, you will need to take the top grate off along with the fan motor. Usually, it's just a couple screws all the way around. And before I forget, before you start taking anything apart, make sure you pull out your disconnect. To be extra safe, you can turn off your breaker inside and turn your thermostat to off. So there's no way this thing has power when you're taking it apart.
So I got the screws out. Then this thing should just come right out like that. And you can just set it aside, move it out of the way. I like to just leave it out halfway because I don't like disconnecting the wires. Oh, actually we need a better view. So, I will flip this over this way. Like that. And down here we have our compressor. Usually the compressor electrical box right here will have some kind of a cover. You either pull it up or there's a clip over it. There's some kind of cover. Figure out how to pull it off. In my case on my compressor, this thing just slides right up like that. And down below you have your compressor pins. So this is what the compressor pins look like. There's three of them. One is a common, one is a start, and one is a run winding. And there's three wires that go to them.
So to check and see if your compressor is good or if it's shorted out to the casing, the windings, I mean, uh, you should have a meter. I mean, if you don't have one, buy one. At least a cheap one that can check voltages and resistance. It will help you out for troubleshooting things like this. Uh, but anyway, you set your meter to ohms or you can also do the continuity. And then you will unhook each wire or sometimes it's a whole plug. You can just take a whole plug out. You will unhook each wire from the pins and make note which wire you're pulling off of which pin so you don't hook them up hook them up incorrectly when you put them back. And then what I like to do is make a little scratch mark on top of your compressor till you see bare metal. So you're just scratching some of the paint off. There's my bare metal. You put one lead. So you you set your meter to let's say continuity. You put one lead onto this bare metal. And then with the wires disconnected, I'll leave mine connected, but you'll disconnect your wires. With the wires disconnected, you will check each pin to the casing. Every single pin should say O. If any one of them has continuity to the casing, then you know your compressor is shorted to ground and you need a new compressor or a whole new unit. And like I said previously, this is the worst case scenario.
Now, if you don't have a meter, one way you can check, I mean, you're still kind of guessing, but it's a pretty good chance that's what it is. What you could do is disconnect those same wires from the compressor. Then go reset your breaker, turn all the power back on, make sure those wires are not touching anything inside the AC here, and turn your unit back on. If the breaker does not trip with the compressor wires off, that means your problem indeed is the compressor. And then, just to double check, plug those compressor wires back in and then turn your AC on again. And if it trips right away, then you can be pretty sure that your compressor is indeed shot.
Another reason why your AC can be tripping the breaker is that you have some bare wire or a broken or corroded wire that's touching some kind of metal somewhere. So, it could be the wires that were going to the compressor. Once in a while inside that compressor plug, you'll have a mouse nest and they chew stuff up and then wires burn out and they short out. Hopefully, it's just the wires and not the whole compressor. Sometimes the mice can take out the whole compressor because of that.
Now, if your compressor wires are damaged, then you can repair them just by splicing them and putting a new connector on. But once in a while, I get connectors that'll burn right off cuz you do have to have a kind of a heavyduty connector on that compressor pin. The best way to fix that is with a quick plug compressor repair kit. It comes with three connectors that you can screw in onto the compressor pins, and it comes with long wires that you can route to your contactor. It's a very slick fix. If you want to check it out, I'll put a link in the comments below.
Also, you will want to take apart your uh electrical section. And what I mean by that is where you have all your, you know, your contactor, your capacitor, any relays and such. Just look where your electrical whip comes from your disconnect. As you can see, I have my disconnect pulled out. Look where the power comes in. In my case, it's right here. And wherever you have the power coming in, that's where your electrical stuff will be. It'll either be right here or in this panel right here. I I know that mine is behind this panel. So, I'll take this apart real quick. And here you have your electrical section. And sometimes mice will get in here, build a big nest, and start chewing up wires. So, investigate this area also for any chewed or broken, corroded, brokenoff wires. And if you do find something broken, you can just snip the broken piece off, put a new connector on it, and put that connector right back on. And I do see this quite a bit where mice make a nest in here. Once in a while, you'll find a bat or a snake, too.
Another reason your AC could be tripping the breaker is because your compressor is drawing high amps at startup. So, whenever your unit starts up, sometimes you'll even notice the lights fade in your house. Whenever the AC unit comes on, your lights will kind of dim and then come back on. That means your unit outside is drawing a lot of amperage when it starts up initially. In fact, the amp draw at startup is multiple times higher than the usual runtime amp draw. One thing you could do to remedy that is put in a hard start kit SP6. And what that does is it increases the torque at startup by like 500% or so. And I've checked the amp draw both ways before the hard start kit and after the hard start kit. And it literally chops the amp draw like in half. So, if that's your problem, a hard start kit will solve it.
And this dirty condenser coil you see here can also be a reason why your AC is tripping your breaker. If your AC condenser coil fins are completely plugged up, like you see mine are right here, that could trip your breaker because that increases the amp draw. Um, a lot of times there'll be a grate like I have over your fins. But if you look inside, you can see that it's all plastered inside, too. Because the way the unit works is it's sucking air through the sides and pushing it out the top. So, if that's completely plugged, that'll ramp up your amp draw, and that could trip your breaker as well. To clean that, all you will need is just a hose and water. And really, I should have actually, while I had this apart, sprayed it from the inside out. That usually works better, but I usually do it from the outside anyway, and it works just as fine. As you can see, I'm going from the outside. And look at that. The stuff just comes off real nice and easy. I have the fuzzy coil. Yours might be just a regular fins, but it'll work the same way. And of course, you want to have the power off while you're doing this. It doesn't have to be spot-ree, but most of it should come off. All right. So, I washed down all that cottonwood seed that I had all around my coil. One thing to keep in mind, you don't want the pressure to be too high on your hose. If you have a nozzle with really high pressure, that could bend the fins and that's not very good. So, if your pressure is really high in the hose, just take it off and use it without the nozzle.
Another thing that can cause your AC to trip your breaker is if you're low on freon or if you're overcharged. If somebody put Freon in and they put too much in, that could also cause your breaker to trip. Unfortunately, you can't really check that yourself. You will need a technician to check that part.
The condenser fan, if that is burnt out, that could also trip your breaker. And I've seen it before, like when people reset the breaker, this thing will literally start to smoke. And a lot of times, not every time, but a lot of times, you can come here and push it with a screwdriver or a stick, the fan blades, and the fan will be really stuck or seized up. See how mine spins really free? I just tap it a little bit and it goes. If I tap it hard, it'll spin more. Your fan should spin like that. If you come here and you try to spin it, spinning it and it's like really stiff, that means your motor is burnt out and you should get that replaced.
Another quick test that you can do, even if it's spinning quick, remember how I mentioned you can pull off the compressor wires and just reset the breaker and see if it trips? You can do the same thing with the fan. Just trace down where the wires go from the fan into your electrical components here. Unplug those wires. Make sure they're not touching anything metal. Reset your breaker and just start up the AC again and see if it trips with the fan disconnected.
I have seen before that the contactor can cause the breaker to trip as well. And one way you can check that with a meter is to put your meter leads where your line comes in, which in my case would be right here. So if you put your leads on the black and red wire on those two screws, you'll have 240 volts with the unit running. And then if the contactor plunger is pulled in the low voltage, which means the thermostat is calling for cooling, you're going to have 240 volts here as well. If something's wrong with your contactor, what you will see is this will be 240 volts and this will be 280 or 300. That could cause your breaker to trip as well. The contactor is pretty infrequent. It's pretty rare that I see that tripping the AC breaker, but it can happen.
And I'll mention this one just because it actually happens more than you would think. People cover up their AC during the winter and unfortunately a lot of them forget to take that cover off when summer comes around. So their AC turns on and all that hot air that is trying to reject gets pushed right back. That increases your amp draw and also trips your breaker. So if you cover your AC during the winter, make sure it's uncovered for the summer.
And if you don't remember the last time you changed your furnace filter, that could also be tripping your breaker. So take out your filter and take a look at it. See if that's all plugged up. Chances are if your filter is the one that's tripping your breaker, it's going to be like pitch black, fully fully plugged. And a lot of times you'll hear your unit whistling a lot when your filter is super plugged. And as you're taking your filter out, you can even hear the fan slowing down.
And guys, if you've already tried everything, you've had technicians out, they can't find what in the world is tripping your breaker, everything seems to be normal, then there's also the chance that your actual breaker is the one that's bad. So, if you're comfortable replacing a breaker yourself, you could tackle it or call an electrician. By the way, I heard electricians are good at tracking down shorts, too. So, who knows? Maybe they could find it for you.
Well, guys, and those are the things that I've seen trip AC breakers in my job. Hopefully, one of those will help you figure out what's causing your AC to trip your breaker. If you know any other scenarios that trip a breaker, please let us know in the comments below. Maybe it'll help somebody else out. And sometimes, I forgot to mention this. Once in a long time, the disconnect, if you take it apart, the wires coming in and out to the in and out of the disconnect will be burnt or corroded and break off. And if they touch the metal box, that will cause your breaker to trip as well.
Well guys, thank you so much for watching. If you have something to add, please let us know in the comments below. Don't forget to mash that like button on your way out. And we'll see you next time. [Music]