Hope2DoiItMeSelf

Hello,
I have a Goodman Manufacturing Company Indoor Airhandler installed in my attic. August '08 the air conditioning for the upper floors stopped working. The outside heat pump would start - but the indoor fan never began circulating cool air - and a burning electrical odor seemed to be in the air. (I think the odor came from hot refrigerant lines heating up some plastic foam insulation on them.) I tried to simply run the circulator fan by itself - and just a humm came from the attic - but the fan itself would never come on. So, I simply turned the fuse breakers off for that system and decided we did not need AC upstairs for the the coming cooler months - and take care of it later (now). Several years ago when moved into this house, we had a HVAC guy replace the ciruclator fan (he said he put in a new motor - the whole job was about $500). He said to keep the filters replaced every month .. and that would keep the motor clean and improve performancd ... and I have tried to keep that done. I opened up the air handler and could manually spin the fan blower blades. There seemed to be a lot of moisture in the box .. but that may be normal for a AC unit. Does the moisture cause some components to burn / wear out more quickly? That is the extent of my diagnosis. Is there a relay or switch that may be easy or cheap enough to check before I call a service company? I will get more info about the specs of the motor and system. Thanks.

kok328

Check for proper volatage to the blower motor.
If voltage is good, then the motor is bad, capacitor is bad and/or both. Start w/changing the capacitor as this is only a couple of bucks.

glennjanie

Welcome Hope2:
I whole heartedly agree with Kok and would like to add; the system should not have excessive moisture in it. The moisture in the warm air should condense on the evaporator coil (which is probably connected to the end of the air handler), drain down to the bottom and out through a pipe drain to the outside. It is also good to have a pan under the unit for emergencies, so you don't have ceiling damage.
Glenn

Hope2DoiItMeSelf

OK .. Thanks for your responses. I replaced the evaporator motor and capacitor ... and the fan comes on as it should when I set the Fan on Auto - while keeping the Heat/Cool switch off... so far so good. Now, when I set the Heat to On .. and push the thermostat High enough to trigger it .. the EMER red led comes on ... and the FAN will come on in a few seconds. Again, it appears to be working ... but, its not that cold outside .. and I would expect the AUX green led to come on before the RED EMER led. Also, shouldn't the outside condenser start turning before the heating elements fire up in the air handler in the attic? I am wondering if there is some thing that needs to be checked to verify if the normal heat pump is working, rather than have the EMER heating elements come on first. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks

glennjanie

Hello Hope2:
Make sure your outdoor unit is running, if it isn't and you demand heat the emer coil is the only way it can do it.
I know it worked before but it sure sounds like the control wiring is not wroking like it used to. You could look for a broken wire, check the 24v transformer, look for a terminal that is badly corroded in the control wiring.
Glenn