Airxcel won’t start

[Red Sky]

Airxcel won’t start. After working mostly well for three years, our 8-year old heat pump fan turns on, but compressor apparently won’t start & system automatically switches from Elec to Gas Heat and performs normally. (Coleman-Mach RV Comfort.HP thermostat). Outside temperature is in 50’s, well above 40° minimum for heat pump operation. Any ideas on troubleshooting and/or solution? Thanks.

[Morich]

As things get a little older, one of the more common thing to go bad are the capacitors. There are several, both start to help giv things a kick to start moving and run, but the first supsect might be the start capapacitors.
Lots of videos online to help see what they look like but when you find them, the bad ones may have and end that is swollen, even to the point of leaking so, looking may be good enough.
Often a silver can looking thing with wires at one end, maybe 4 inches or so tall and not hard to spot as they are usually somewhat near the compressor.

https://www.grainger.com/product/30D...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Red Sky]

Morich,

Thanks. Reply is very helpful. Nice to have a place to start the hunt for a fix. Nice to get a response from Austin. My son & 2 granddaughters live in SW Austin & we make the Florida to Austin run at least yearly. I lived there in 1975-6 attending UT grass school. It is still a great city. Back then it was a lovely, great SMALL city.

Carl

[Americanrascal]

Originally Posted by Red Sky

Airxcel won’t start. After working mostly well for three years, our 8-year old heat pump fan turns on, but compressor apparently won’t start & system automatically switches from Elec to Gas Heat and performs normally. (Coleman-Mach RV Comfort.HP thermostat). Outside temperature is in 50’s, well above 40° minimum for heat pump operation. Any ideas on troubleshooting and/or solution? Thanks.

Ours had a high pressure switch quit which resulted in a similar symptom and problem. Wound up putting an entire new heat pump in (courtesy of and per the instructions of the extended warranty company ) and salvaging all the working parts off the one that quit.

[Red Sky]

Thanks for the helpful ideas. NEWS: The Heart pump is performing normally again - with no repair. So, it’s an intermittent issue. Seems to me that a weak/failing electrical control component is a real possibility. Any new comments would be appreciated.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Red Sky

I lived there in 1975-6 attending UT grass school.

I’m going to assume you meant GRAD school, but Austin, in the 70’s??? I don’t know, you may have meant what you typed (or your device typed for you).