Another Major Melt Down

That is a compressor motor capacitor. Well, actually that is a thoroughly charred motor capacitor.

You kinda always know when something is not working quite as well as it should be. Saturday night when I got home it was about 78 degrees on the top floor, noticeably warmer than I usually keep it. Something was clearly not right. The longer I paid attention to it, the situation became clear that my AC was running but not doing a whole lot all night long. Great as this is all I need to have heaped on me right now.

Well, rewind three or four weeks ago, I had the same problem with the upstairs AC. Turns out the capacitor for the compressor had failed and needed to be replaced. The job of this little guy is the keep the voltage going to the motor in the compressor constant since the source is alternating current. I certainly thought that this would fix my problem for good but it did not. It seems like the compressor was in the process of becoming more inefficient and failing as it was drawing more and more voltage through this poor capacitor. This time, all of the wiring and the compressor failed with the capacitor. I think the power coming on instantaneously after the hurricane and the compressor starting was all it needed for the whole thing to be on a road to failure.

Everything is melting down.