Derrick Cole explains why an outdoor HVAC unit hums but won't run: usually a failed start capacitor, which is cheap to replace. He compares the capacitor to a hand pushing a basketball to show how it starts the motor. Turn off the unit immediately to avoid damage.
Hey, on this episode we talk about a humming noise on the outdoor unit and do I need another maintenance? You just came out in January. You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole Show. All right, you ready?
Yeah, waiting on you.
Huh, waiting on me? Of course. What is it? 106. 106, okay. Hey, this is Derrick Cole. Welcome to episode 106 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show, answering your home and energy questions. And we're coming off a nice hot weekend. Very, very exciting because we were busy. Unfortunately, in this business, people have to be miserable for us to get busy. It's not pretty. I don't go around saying it all the time, but it is what it is. We're in the heating and air business, so we do heating and air. So I mean, stuff has to break for you to call us for us to go out. And usually I would say 95% of the time, that's not a pleasant phone call from the other side. They're not excited to be calling us for us to come out. So we make it as painless as possible. But anyway, that's not why we're here to talk about us. We're here to answer your questions.
My outdoor fan is making a humming noise but not running.
Making a humming noise, uh, probably what's going on is not with the fan itself right now, um, and probably if you took a stick— I wouldn't recommend this— but if you took a stick and see if it would start turning, it would. Uh, what's happening there is most likely the capacitor is not having that motor start. If you think about spinning a ball on your finger, you know, a basketball, the basketball would be the motor and your hand would be the capacitor. So for the motor to keep spinning, you need the capacitor. So once that capacitor has failed, the ball falls, the motor doesn't run. You get that humming noise where it's trying to start, wants to start, it might even get hot, but it can't do it because the capacitor is not allowing it to do it. So that sounds like a capacitor problem, but I would— if that is happening, I would not try to run the unit because you don't want to further damage the motor by not running, by getting hot, and then the motor going out. So then you have a motor and a capacitor. So as soon as you see that happening or know that's going on, make sure you kill the power to the unit, stop the unit, make sure you don't run it because. You don't want to cause any further damage. I mean, a capacitor is probably one of the least expensive repairs we got, but it's also the most common repairs we get, especially when it gets hot outside, because it's usually the first thing to go on a unit. But they can be prevented— shameless plug here— and can be prevented with a tune-up or maintenance on your unit. To make sure you're good to go before you get in that situation.
You did my maintenance in January. Do I need it again before I run my AC?
If you're under contract with us, we come out every 6 months. So if you called us in January, we did the maintenance in January, then 6 months from then we'll do another maintenance. Twice a year, every 6 months, for the heating and one for the cooling should be all you need, should be good to go. Now the reason you're probably asking that is because you've seen tune-ups advertised, $59 tune-ups, $89 tune-ups advertised, and you're wondering, do I need to go ahead and do it? Those are mainly for the people— well, it's 100% for the people not under contract, but it's also for the people who don't have regular maintenance on their units. So it's better for them springtime to go in and get a unit checked while it's not that hot, not that busy. We can offer a discount to go ahead and do it to make sure they're good to go for the summertime. So if you're under contract, we're there every 6 months, you should be good to go. You had your unit cleaned, checked, maintained in January, you should be fine until July, end of June. Clean— see, I had to do the math there. No, sorry about that. But in July, we'll come out, clean the coils and check to make sure everything's good to go. But you should be fine. But the reason you're seeing— I think it's a bigger question of seeing the tune-up ads is because, you know, really trying to target those people who haven't really thought about it. It's kind of, you know, hadn't had anybody out there in 3, 4, or 5 years. So that person needs to have a tune-up and needs to check these capacitors and the motors to make sure they're not pulling more amps, or in the capacitor, it hasn't decreased in value where it is going to fail. You can see that happening before it happens. So you should be good to go, to answer your question. But the bigger issue would be make sure you get that tune-up for the summertime, for those of you who don't have a contract with another company or us, to make sure you're good to go. Because once it gets June, July, August, the discounts are going to get less and less and less, us included, everybody around us, because you're going to have demand season. It's going to be hot, it's going to be busy. So tune-ups aren't going to be advertised at a discount as much as it is in the springtime. It's a simple supply and demand issue. So when it's springtime, it's obviously not very busy, you can offer that discount. In summertime, obviously you're busy, so you don't offer that discount. But to answer your question, you should be good to go. All right, it's episode 106 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Be sure to hashtag your questions #AskDerrickCole and we'll get them on the show. Or you can do what we're doing now, which is when you see me, just ask.
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