well. let me make this as short as possible. went up in attic to do ventilation. ran ducting to my closet outside. day after AC condenser unit outside stops working. AC guy comes and sees no power going to condenser unit. has nothing to do with AC unit. we turn on and off breaker a few times and the condenser finally comes on. a few hours later i turned off AC and now condenser unit outside wont come back on again. call AC guy and he tells me it must be breaker box. but i know it must be a cable that i messed with in the attic. one that is still getting connectivity but not enough. i ran the ducting next to the breaker box on top of all the wires and such. is this something that is doable? or am i just going to have to face the AC guy and tell him whats going on and try and get him to go up there and find the cable that is being messed with? any advice? i would damn give 100 bucks to someone that helped me solve this or send them a piece from this website or whatever
@herbsivore Electrical wiring is fairly robust and simply running new duct work shouldn't have bothered it unless you cut it, Spliced into it, Yanked it really hard, Hooked it with your boots and jerked the snot out of it, or otherwise molested it in some fashion. Breakers can and do fail and that would be my first place to start troubleshooting. There may be a fusible disconnect at the Condenser I'd check second. Third go back over where you crawled and inspect the length of the feeder to the AC condenser if you can identify it. Know WTH your doing or call qualified help as electricity can and does kill more then a few homeowners and jacks of trades each year. BNW
i definitely was not harsh on any wire while up there i was careful for this very reason. just the coincidence of the condenser unit not running has me since i was up there the night before. 1. if it is just the breaker failing that would be a hell of a coincidence. but since you back up what the AC guy said i will have to change the breaker tomorrow morning. 2. i already switched the fusible disconnect before the AC guy got there but i will do it again when i get the breakers since its only 2 bucks. 3. thats what i did last night. i went back and could not identify it. that is my problem. i have no idea which wire to look for there is a pile of wires that are up there near the condenser unit the breaker box is near there so it does not help.
@herbsivore AC equipment tends to be 220 Volts and duplex or 2 pole breakers. Always test both legs to ground after resetting as they don't always reset both sides of the breaker. Shutting off fully and flipping back on a few times can clear or fully fail a questionable breaker so give that a try as well. Really pushing hard into the off position can do the trick sometimes. Old Push-A-matic breakers needed to be depressed and let snap back into place. Tricks you learn over 40 years of wiring. BNW
i think i found the problem. now i just have to fix it. it seems when i actually push on the breaker, and i dont mean push to the right which is ON, i mean actually push towards the wall it recieves connectivity and my condenser unit turns on but then when i let go so there is no pressure on breaker it turns back off.
Ahh might be loose jaws where the breakers grips the buss bars. A little tricky as you have to pull the dead front to change the breaker. Kill the main first and be very careful. Look for damage on the bars where the breaker attaches, blackend or damaged area. BNW
got it turn off all breaker power and unscrew breaker box. ok i will do that. should i wait til morning so i can go to homedepot and get a new breaker or you think this might be something i can just fix by opening the breaker box?
GOOD NEWS! i took out the breaker and it ended up being a burnt breaker not the cables up in the attic. what a relief. hate going up there. what a coincidence that was. will never jump the gun again. thanks for the help