Bad News

My wife had a friend in for a chat. I was working at home as I sometimes do. The upstairs gets warm because of the roof. After the friend left, my wife said, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the air conditioner is out”. The usual tests, “call for cool”, “call for heat”, “fan only”, all fail. So the question is “Where is the problem?”. Looking into it, the LED on the control module is out. Checking the 5 amp fuse on the control module shows the puff of smoke. Jumpering the fuse with some light wire and flee clips (don’t forget to turn the power off at the breaker) brought the A/C to life. Off to Walmart to get a replacement fuse. The fuse is the same kind used in older autos with flat lugs. Walmart had 10, 15, 20, 30 in that still 5 to a pack. The only way to get 2 5’s was to buy a $16 combo kit. Since I figured it started OK with the jumper on. And the jumper did not feel warm after a couple of minutes, probably not a short. Bought the fuses and put the correct value 5 amp in to replace the jumper. (Don’t forget to turn the power off at the breaker).
My son’s car and my wife’s car use the new style fuse with pointed lugs.
My daughter’s car and my car use the old flat lug style. Hopefully, I will still have the same set of fuses unused when the cars need to be replaced.

Moral: Don’t Panic. Check the on-board fuse before you call an expensive service-person..

My wife mentioned that there was power surge that I did not notice since my laptop battery covered for the loss of public power.

By the way, the cool weather came in for the Labor day Weekend and we have had the windows and doors open since Saturday.

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