Home AC question

[Capm_Spaulding]

14 year old electric heat pump system.
It has a slow leak that takes about 2 years to get low enough to freeze up. We just had it topped off a month ago, has been working fantastic.

About an hour ago I noticed our thermostat was reading 78, while being set on 71. I reached up and felt warm ish air. I turned the unit off, went up to the attic and checked and nothing was frozen up this time. I turned the unit back on and now it’s blowing ice cold, already back down to 74 and cooling,

I am lost, anyone have any idea what could be going on now?

I replaced the condenser fan thanks to a fellow OSAer, and also replaced the capacitor within the last 2 years. I plan on a new unit soon, but just curious what may cause it to not blow cold, then start again.

 

[Snattlerake]

Something froze up and then thawed I betcha.

 

[KOPBET]

Ice. Low charge?

 

[2busy]

Compressor might not have been running.

 

[Capm_Spaulding]

Compressor might not have been running.

Something froze up and then thawed I betcha.

Ice. Low charge?

It was maybe 5 mins between turning it off and back on again. It went from blowing warm air to cooling again after a restart. Nothing was cold or frozen this time. it definitely seems the compressor wasn’t running, but not sure why.

 

[Capm_Spaulding]

It’s 71 in here now. Guess I’ll wait and see what it does next time, maybe will give me a better idea.

On second thought.. I bet it’s the capacitor again, I’ll just replace it again tomo since it’s cheap.

 

[2busy]

could have been an ant stuck between the contacts.

 

[KurtM]

I had this same thing happen, it was a stuck tcp valve, or something like that. I shut off the breakers and had a guy come look. Soon as I switched on the breaker it went to working. Guy was cool and didn't charge me a thing.... Said sometimes they get stuck and turning off the power to the unit let's the switch reset.

 

[dennishoddy]

Clean your condenser coils outside.

 

[Capm_Spaulding]

Turns out the condenser fan motor was bad. $100 and a trip to Locke Supply later and she’s golden!