Hot take: Feeling capacitors for heat saved me on a tricky service call

I had this unit last month that kept cutting out on hot days. The homeowner was fed up because two other techs said it was fine. I started with the basics, checking voltage and airflow, but nothing stood out. Then I thought back to a conversation with a mentor about capacitors getting warm when they're going bad. After letting the system run for about five minutes, I touched the capacitor case. It was almost too hot to handle. I pulled out my meter and checked the microfarads, and it was way off spec under load. Swapped it out, and the AC has been perfect ever since. Now I always add a quick temp check with my hand to my capacitor testing routine. It's not in the book, but it works.

3 comments

3 Comments

mason.julia1mo ago

Your "too hot to handle" trick is solid, but maybe keep a glove handy for the really cooked ones.

parkerw211mo ago

Haha right? @mason.julia makes a good point. My bare hand method works for stuff that's just a little too warm, like a bowl fresh from the microwave. But for the real scorchers, like a cookie sheet straight out of the oven or a cast iron handle that's been over the flame, you're totally asking for a burn. A glove or even a thick dry towel is the only smart move there. Otherwise you're just doing a panicked hot potato dance across the kitchen.

walker.grace1mo ago

Totally feel you on the panicked hot potato dance. Yep, learned that lesson the hard way last week with a baking sheet, nearly launched my cookies across the room.