11,000 BTU Penguin problem.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, today while tinkering with my trailer, it was getting hot inside. So I turned on my air conditioner and all I got was a humming noise. I tried it a few times and my air condition just wouldn't work. I'm plugged into my 30 amp service and my Kill-A-Watt showed 120 to 121 Volts AC. I then removed my inside air conditioner cover to see if I could see anything. In the back of the unit, I could see the squirrel cage. [fan] Because I have a heat strip, it was difficult to get my fingers in there. But I was able to touch the fan and turn it. It seemed to be stuck. After that, I turned my air conditioner back on and it worked perfect.

After a lot of internet searching, I found basically nothing helpful. My question at this time, is; Does my air conditioner motor have an oil port, sealed bearings, or bronze bushings? Does my motor need to be lubed or replaced?


Thank You for any advice or help with this concern.

[Melody Ranch]

Dirt Daubers will cause that to happen. When you moved the fan the dirt broke loose and allowed the fan to operate. A good hosing down will wash away the Dauber nest if thats the problem.

[AtomicNo13]

Those 3 speed fan motors are prone to failure.
They are cheap on Amazon. Ive seen them sold with the hard start cap for around $115. If youre going to have trouble now it will happen again.
I would replace it before you get stick without air.
After getting on the roof, its a half hour fix.

[KJRitchie]

It's possible there is a bad spot on the commutator of the motor. I doubt these fan motors are brushless. Just rotating the fan moved it off the bad spot. Probably best to replace as mentioned before.

Kelvin

[TG Twinkie]

Air conditioner motors are AC 120 volt. They are not universal or DC motors and therefor have no brushes. They do have start and run capacitors which can go bad. If you have a bad capacitor the motor may not start especially if there is much mechanical resistance.

[KJRitchie]

I didn't know that. Thanks for that information.

Kelvin

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Does my air conditioner motor have an oil port, sealed bearings, or bronze bushings? Does my motor need to be lubed or replaced?

The fan motor in the Dometic Penguin has sealed ball bearings. I would recommend replacement of the fan motor when the next reasonable opportunity presents itself, since the bearings are not intended to be serviceable.

Originally Posted by Melody Ranch

Dirt Daubers will cause that to happen. When you moved the fan the dirt broke loose and allowed the fan to operate. A good hosing down will wash away the Dauber nest if thats the problem.

While that is a possibility, the more common problem is corroded bearings.

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

It's possible there is a bad spot on the commutator of the motor. I doubt these fan motors are brushless. Just rotating the fan moved it off the bad spot. Probably best to replace as mentioned before.

Originally Posted by TG Twinkie

Air conditioner motors are AC 120 volt. They are not universal or DC motors and therefor have no brushes. They do have start and run capacitors which can go bad. If you have a bad capacitor the motor may not start especially if there is much mechanical resistance.

Like most air conditioners, the Penguin uses a permanent split capacitor (PSC) motor for the fan. There is no commutator. Also, there is no start capacitor as such, just a "run" capacitor that stays in circuit at all times.

In essence the PSC motor is an induction motor that is designed in such a way that it never comes anywhere close to its synchronous speed, so an oil-filled capacitor is used to maintain a rotating magnetic field in the same way that a starting capacitor is typically used, except that the capacitor remains in the stator circuit all the time rather than being switched out when the motor approaches its synchronous speed.

They are widely used as blower motors because they last a long time and can be easily operated at more than one speed. Lower speeds are usually achieved using different stator taps, but can also be achieved with a loading coil, SCR, or other simple electronic control.