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Realized I was using the wrong capacitor size for years
I was swapping out run capacitors on condensers for like 5 years just matching the MFD from the old part. Then a guy from Carrier told me to check the actual specs on the unit label instead. Turned out I was under-specing some of them by 5-10 MFD. Anyone else make this dumb mistake or am I the only one?
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the_susan2mo ago
Wait, you just match the MFD from the old one? I always thought that was the way to go too, kinda figured if it ran it was fine. But hearing that you were under-specing them makes me think I should start checking the labels on units myself, been doing the same thing for years without question.
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daniel2142mo ago
Take a closer look at those labels, half the time the numbers are worn off anyway so matching by feel is the real trick.
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Wait, you just matched MFD from the old one too? Yeah I did that for a solid six or seven years before a factory rep pointed out I was way off on like half my jobs. It's one of those things where you figure "hey it ran fine for years before I swapped it" but man, getting the right spec makes a huge difference in compressor life (learned that one the hard way).
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