What did you do in your garage today..?

This probably should go in the "What are you doing to the house" thread, but I can't find it and it and this is more of a mechanical repair than a renovation, so here it is.

As we were watching TV last night I noticed I was getting warmer and warmer. Next thing you know, I see a missed email from Ecobee that something's wrong with my AC because the system was calling for cool for the past few hours, but the temperature has kept rising. Well crap, it's the hottest night of the year, the next day is Canada day, and I'm leaving on vacation the day after. Praying that it's just the start/run capacitor, I find one with the same specs on Amazon that ships next day so I grab it. Then I go outside and check the condenser - hmmm, the fan is spinning - last two times the cap died, the fan wasn't spinning. Now I'm wondering if I have a refrigerant leak. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, so expected the wife to call around while I was gone to have someone come by.

Today the cap arrived and I figured I could spend time I don't have to diagnose the entire AC or take a few minutes and just swap it out. Well hot damn (no pun intended), the new cap it fixed it, so it the "run" part of the old cap went bad this time. No bulging and no rusting like the last 2. The one catch is that the cap I got is physically larger than the ones I used in the past, so I had to bolt the holder "open" to the frame and leave it to spring tension to hold it in place. Will try not to dwell on it while on vacation and attach it properly when I get back.

View attachment 79313
Ours was also running poor the other day.
26 degrees inside the house.
Buddy is coming over to look it over but I decided to clean the AC unit.
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Ours was also running poor the other day.
26 degrees inside the house.
Buddy is coming over to look it over but I decided to clean the AC unit.
View attachment 79352
I wouldn’t be surprised if that fixed it. The very first time I ever had a central AC problem, I was expecting a hefty but fair fee since a friends brother was in the business. He came by and said the problem was just dirt/grass all over it from my neighbor moving his lawn (my side was gravel) and that after he washed it all of it was fine. No charge!
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if that fixed it. The very first time I ever had a central AC problem, I was expecting a hefty but fair fee since a friends brother was in the business. He came by and said the problem was just dirt/grass all over it from my neighbor moving his lawn (my side was gravel) and that after he washed it all of it was fine. No charge!
By the time my buddy came by around 5 or 6 pm. there was ice buildup outside and on the furnce coil.
We toopped up for now and will monitor.

Last time it was topped up was about 7 years ago when I moved it from one side of the house to the other.

New AC quoted at $3400
 
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