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2026.05.22 Young repair heat pump:


I wanted to get a second opinion on the bad compressor before committing to an expensive repair or replacement,
and invited Young to come take a look. He tested the compressor start cap and said it was low, swapped it with
a new one and the compressor fired right up and seemed to be working reliably in heat and cold. It uses the
older R-34 coolant and said if any work was needed then it would have to have the coolant replaced with a new
coolant, which would involve several things including vacuuming out the R-34, cleaning the lines internally,
changing a few parts, and new coolant, so: kinda expensive. There's no easy way to tell how much R-34 is in
the system since it's a constant-pressure gas/liquid system. (which I understand from paintball CO2)

The old cap didn't blow up but it looks like the vent opened up and it sprayed some black film on the resistor
on the top. I had a spare capacitor on-hand but it was the same brand so I opted to just go with one he had,
since the price ($25) wasn't unreasonable. Total service call with labor and tax was $214.58, over 25 times
less expensive than a new compressor. Even if it only lasts a single year, I'm still ahead on cost.

I'm disappointed in Dalton for not identifying the problem, and also in myself for not finding the problem or
just trying to swap the cap out to see if it helped.




last updated 05/25/2026 at 13:26:12 by make_www_index.command version 2026.05.12.D