Air Conditioning not turning on?

Question

I painted my deck yesterday. I covered up my ac unit outside with a blanket and forgot to remove it after I finished... The blanket covered up my ac unit all day long and now its not turning on. When I turn on the ac inside, only the fan works not the ac unit outside. Dose anyone know what could be wrong with it? How much should I be expecting to spend on repairs?

Answer 1

all the above answers are good, however you have only burnt up the condenser motor, the unit usually starts when the fan motor starts. all units have high pressure switches to shut the unit down when pressure is to high. they should auto reset when cooled down and the pressure lowers. check the fan motor first, then cut the power to the unit and pull the cover plate off the compressor and see if it is grounded to itself with a multimeter. if you have cotinuity, the unit is smoked.

Answer 2

You either smoked the compressor or tripped a high pressure switch if your unit happens to have one.

Hopefully it does.Check it out and Reset it.

EDIT:The buzzing you hear is the contactor coil energized.

Take the panel off and look for that reset.If you don't have one expect to pay between 600$-1000$ for an out of warranty compressor change out.

Answer 3

I don't know what I'm talking about, but it sounds like you blew the compressor.  It's almost like having to replace the unit.  You won't make that mistake again, will you?

Answer 4

critical question - was the AC unit powered on inside the house during the day?

If it wasn't and you are just turning it on now and it won't come on it could be your thermosat isn't set properly (could be set to fan only)  ac won't kick in unless thermostat is working properly.

  I agree though if it was powered up while the blanket is there you could have either thrown the breaker or fried the compressor or both.  Sorry....

Answer 5

I'm not an HVAC expert, but I was married to a contractor for 17 years.  All AC units need air to circulate, both inside and out.  Is it the fan only inside the house turning on?  If so, you may have frozen up your motor as it tried to suck air into the condenser.  It could have a fuse/breaker type switch, depending on the age and brand of the unit.  Many newer units automatically turn off the condenser if  there is a problem with the airflow.

Answer 6

you might of burnt up the compressor. depends on the size of the unit but maybe 2000

Answer 7

if the outdoor fan isn't coming on there is a chance you may have tripped the breaker or blown a fuse inside the disconnect which is located next to the out side unit...try changing these before picking up the phone

if the fan does run at the outdoor unit then try leaving your a/c shut off for a good part of the day to allow the either the high pressure switch the automically reset  (it may be a mannually resest in which case you have a red button to push in) or the internal protection switch inside the compressor to cool down...once it cools down the switch will make again allowing the unit to run....to speed the process up you could pull out the discoonect, take the fan off of the top of the unit and run cold water over top of the compressor.

important to know either way you should leave your a/c turned off in order to allow it to cool down...if your still hearing a buzzing sound it tells me your keepin the compressor hot by having 240 volts passing into the motor windings..good luck

Answer 8

u burnt out the compressor it will be better to replace the unit but if u don't have the money don't tell ur warranty company that u put somthing  on top of it