How do I know if my capacitor is bad

[REDGI]

13 month old GE model AEC14AY
All of a sudden on 7/26/2021 stopped cooling. Always maintained with clean parts and it just quit blowing cold air. Out of warranty now… Thank goodness we have portable Ac but i would like to fix myself. Way too expensive for a tech

 

[IGBT]

Yeah, it's a three prong dual run capacitor, it has 65uf and 15uf and it is 250vac. Should be easy to get and replace. Just make sure you note which wire goes to which terminal.

View attachment 48102

Is it possible to upgrade the working voltage of this run / stop cap?? It's a common failure in Goodman Heat Pumps. Will it still fit in the cage if the working voltage is increased??

 

[sdifox]

Is it possible to upgrade the working voltage of this run / stop cap?? It's a common failure in Goodman Heat Pumps. Will it still fit in the cage if the working voltage is increased??

Err your input is 110vac. I imagine they use 250vac for more common parts. Caps die, but I do agree 14 months is ludicrous.

 

[IGBT]

Err your input is 110v. I imagine they use 250vac for more common parts. Caps die.

I've seen a high failure rate of the Made In China caps purchased on ebay. I suspect the working voltage is much lower then what's printed on the can..

 

[sdifox]

I've seen a high failure rate of the Made In China caps purchased on ebay. I suspect the working voltage is much lower then what's printed on the can..

Those would be fake ones. Go to your local hvac part store I guess.

 

[pcgeek11]

Common cause of cheap Chinese failed capacitors is contaminated electrolyte.

 

[deadlyapp]

Had the capacitor die in my central AC last week and made me think of this post. It was about a 6 year old cap based on the date and seems like high frequency power cycling caused it to fail (we had power loss and back on about 5 times in a minute). For me, the fan was still operating but the compressor would not start. New cap fixed it no problem.