PCA Forums

here's the deal. I have an older 220 v AC in my kitchen. Loud but it works. It is on a single breaker with one wire to the panel.

Circuit breaker starting clicking off a few weeks ago. The really strange thing was that sometime it would not reset all - just click back - when there was no laod from the AC, and even if the AC was unplugged (wtf is that)
It got worse so I finally had the electrician out today. He tested the load fvrom the AC starting up and the load while running. All ok. He cleaned the contacts on the plug and the breaker box. he inspected the full run of the line - a thru the basement up the outside wall od the kitchen deal and said there was nothing visibly odd. So we replaced the breaker, and all looked ok, he told me to run it on high, since for some reason running it on low was when before breaker replacement - it would kick out.

Had to take my wife to DR about and hour away, so turned off AC. Came back and new breaker had tripped with AV off. Tried to reset it and no dice. The I got pissed and thought WTF, set the AC on high, and the breaker came on with no problem. ???

The AC I have is ancient and came with the house, but works, but no biggie to replace. The thing that has me perplexed is the new breaker kicking under no apparent load. options look like run new line to AC and or replace AC. A big AC is not cheap and don't want to spend the $$ if I don't have to.

Thoughts or ideas welcome.

I don't know if the electrician tested for this, but I'd put a voltmeter across the ground and neutral on the socket and see if there's any voltage. That can happen with old house wiring.

I guess my advise would be to unplug the AC instead of just turning it off for the next few weeks. If it pops the breaker unplugged then it's a wiring issue. If it doesn't then it's probaby a bad AC unit.

AC unit could have some bad wiring inside grounding out as well if its doing it with it off.

Thanks gang.

I'm going to have him replace the line and the receptacle as a start . I have had some rodent damage to wiring in the past. If issues persist I will replace the AC.

This comes in the middle of one of those "wtf will happen next" stretches we all get once in a while . My wife has a herniated disk and is in pain and pretty miserable, the basement flooded from rain a couple of days ago and is just now getting fully dried out, there's something wrong with my car and my guy can't get to it until next week, pollen has been killing me the last couple of weeks, we got mice in the kitched again, and I need to get down to my dad's place in delaware and try and trace some plumbing leaks there - blah blah blah. All first world problems except for my wife, which will haopefully improve over time. The rest will get fixed sooner or later.

john no help here on AC - but sure hope things get better for you soon .it sure sounds like its all going south at the moment !

Thx Reno. Sometimes things are like that, sooner or later the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everything's good

Got the electrician out this morning to replace line. He was doing one last inspection of of the outside portion of the line (hey, it's WV) and found the bad spot. The line had corroded near a staple but was under a bunch of coats of paint and had finally arced through the paint on the outside to be visible. Once he pulled it off you could see it was nasty on the back side. Pulled out all the old wire and replaced, put in a new receptacle box for good measure, and the AC runs fine. While he was here down in the root cellar under the main panel I also got him to rough out a 220/50 amp service for a hot tub.
Glad I don't have to buy a new big AC.

edit: that 8/3 cable with ground for the hot tub ain't cheap...

No it is not. I have to run about 100" or more out to my barn from the house. They put up a 30x40 pole barn with concrete floor and it only has a single 15 amp 110 breaker feeding the whole thing. That's on the list of things to do when I rent a trencher.

nice barn!

John glad it was that simple !