AC Saga

When I got back from vacation in early July, the temperature in the house was a cool 90 degrees. Turns out that the outside breaker had tripped. I quickly realized what was going on and flipped it back on. All was well till the next day when it tripped again while I was the office and receives a frantic call from my nanny saying that "habia mucho calor!!". This time though it didnt turn back on. So I called my trusty third worlder ac repair guy who came over at about 11pm after he had finished his regular job. Here in the banana republic you can get things done at odd hours and its actually cheaper so he looked at the problem and said I needed a new breaker which was impossible to get at this time of night. The next morning he came by and it started again after replacing it.

A few weeks later, we started getting even hotter weather in the mid to high nineties. Around the first of August, I started to notice that the house would begin to warm up as the temperature outside started to rise about noon. Seemed like the outside compressor was overheating so I let it cool while we went to dinner and ended up turning it on when we got back and its worked ok thru the night that first day it happened on a Saturday night. That Sunday morning, my third worlder came by but it was working fine and he really didnt know what was wrong as he gave me one of those "I dont know what the fuck it is buddy" looks.

The next day, Monday, I called a new ac company recommended by my trusty neighbors who have a repair guy for everything. They showed up..replaced a plethora of stuff and handed me a $220 bill. I figured its worth it if I sleep cool at night. It worked for a day or so and the check got cashed. Like clockwork, that day it started all again. By noon, the ac could not keep up and the temperature in the house rose to the low 80s. I called the same guys who had just worked on it and the owner was in the area. He showed up within the hour and I came home from work to meet the guy. Turns out that someone who had repaired the outside unit a few years ago had put in an incorrect capacitor which caused the motor fan to run at the wrong rpm which caused the compressor to overheat and shutdown. Finally an honest answer and a real fix. Another $160.00, a new motor fan and capacitor and I was in business.