MrShades
02-07-2009, 07:02 PM
Sorry guys - I'm trying to fix / fault trace my home aircon unit and found your interetsing looking forum. As I'm out of work right now I've got plenty of time to play with this thing but little cash to fix or replace... and having a pregnant wife complaining about the heat isn't helping!
Anyway - I've got one of those damn heavy "Portable Air Conditioner" things in the bedroom (bought from B&Q - called a WA-12000R), that used to work well and get the temps down reasonably well. It's not working quite as it should and I could really use some help trying to fix it (as I mentioned, made redundant a few months back so can't just go and buy another!)
When I turn it on it fires up normally (I've got the back off it so I can tell roughly what's happening). Excuse the laymans language... hopefully you'll get my drift...
Both exhaust and room fans fire up normally and I set the unit to max fan speed and "cool" - and as per normal after a few seconds the compressor kicks and fires up.
At this point the cooling rad starts to get cold (the pipes at the bottom of it and the rad itself at the bottom are pretty cold to the touch, and it obviously gets closer to ambient temp as I move my finger up the rad). The compression/exhaust rad gets hot to the touch, over much of it, though warmer towards the top, and the exhaust air blows hot.
It runs like this for a while... 30 mins / 45 mins I guess... all the time the cooling rad gets cooler and the exhaust rad gets warmer... as I'd expect.
Then it stops cooling, and it appears that the compressor just stops (you can hear it stopping). Not because it's hit the set temp (16c!), but just for the heck of it... The rads both start returning back to ambient temp and the exhaust air cools down to ambient also.
If I turn it off at the mains and leave it off for 15 / 30 mins and then turn it back on again it runs OK again for a while, and then the same thing happens.
Fortunately there's a wiring / system diagram on the back of the thing (below).
The two M's (fans for cool air and exhaust air I guess) are running fine... it's the C (compressor I guess) that's playing up. It obviously works (some of the time) rather than just being knackered itself - so my first question is, what is the 25uF capacitor doing in here?
Is there a chance that it's the capacitor that's failing/failed, and could it do so like this, after a while (as it 'heats up').?
Any idea what tests I could do with a DMM if I could get to the cap / compressor (working on getting all of the plastic covers off the damn thing now!)
Any other hints and tips, given the diagram below, on what the problem could be - it looks like a pretty simple setup and it does appear - literally - to be the compressor stopping that's causing the problem.
Any and all help or advice REALLY appreciated.
Shades
Aggg - I can't post the image as this is my first post...
Have a look here then:
homepage.ntlworld.com/mrshades/IMG_2870.JPG
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrshades/IMG_2870.JPG
Anyway - I've got one of those damn heavy "Portable Air Conditioner" things in the bedroom (bought from B&Q - called a WA-12000R), that used to work well and get the temps down reasonably well. It's not working quite as it should and I could really use some help trying to fix it (as I mentioned, made redundant a few months back so can't just go and buy another!)
When I turn it on it fires up normally (I've got the back off it so I can tell roughly what's happening). Excuse the laymans language... hopefully you'll get my drift...
Both exhaust and room fans fire up normally and I set the unit to max fan speed and "cool" - and as per normal after a few seconds the compressor kicks and fires up.
At this point the cooling rad starts to get cold (the pipes at the bottom of it and the rad itself at the bottom are pretty cold to the touch, and it obviously gets closer to ambient temp as I move my finger up the rad). The compression/exhaust rad gets hot to the touch, over much of it, though warmer towards the top, and the exhaust air blows hot.
It runs like this for a while... 30 mins / 45 mins I guess... all the time the cooling rad gets cooler and the exhaust rad gets warmer... as I'd expect.
Then it stops cooling, and it appears that the compressor just stops (you can hear it stopping). Not because it's hit the set temp (16c!), but just for the heck of it... The rads both start returning back to ambient temp and the exhaust air cools down to ambient also.
If I turn it off at the mains and leave it off for 15 / 30 mins and then turn it back on again it runs OK again for a while, and then the same thing happens.
Fortunately there's a wiring / system diagram on the back of the thing (below).
The two M's (fans for cool air and exhaust air I guess) are running fine... it's the C (compressor I guess) that's playing up. It obviously works (some of the time) rather than just being knackered itself - so my first question is, what is the 25uF capacitor doing in here?
Is there a chance that it's the capacitor that's failing/failed, and could it do so like this, after a while (as it 'heats up').?
Any idea what tests I could do with a DMM if I could get to the cap / compressor (working on getting all of the plastic covers off the damn thing now!)
Any other hints and tips, given the diagram below, on what the problem could be - it looks like a pretty simple setup and it does appear - literally - to be the compressor stopping that's causing the problem.
Any and all help or advice REALLY appreciated.
Shades
Aggg - I can't post the image as this is my first post...
Have a look here then:
homepage.ntlworld.com/mrshades/IMG_2870.JPG
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrshades/IMG_2870.JPG