The fan in a central air conditioner's condensing unit plays a vital role in cooling the unit and facilitating the phase change of the refrigerant fuel passing through the condenser coils. If your condensing unit has become overly noisy and your unit less efficient, you might have a bent or broken fan.
Checking and replacing the fan is a fairly easy task if you have a way to order the parts for your particular unit. If you aren't positive the fan is the problem or don't want to perform the change yourself, there is no harm in calling in an air conditioning repair technician for the job.
Make sure you completely cut power to the unit before working as a precautionary measure. You can turn off the power by pulling out the fuse in the box located near the condensing unit.
What You Need:
Step 1: Access and Check the Fan
Did you turn off the power to your unit? If not, do that now; it will only take a second and is worth the effort. Now you need to locate the fan guard, which is a grilled cover that sticks out from the top of your condensing unit.
Use a socket wrench or screwdriver to remove the fasteners with the correct tool corresponding to the type of fasteners on your unit. Place the fasteners in your pocket or somewhere else safe since you need to reuse these parts.
The fan guard is attached to what's known as the fan motor assembly. The fan guard is on top of the motor which is on top of the fan. So to access the fan, you simply need to flip the whole thing over so that the fan is pointing up.
There will be wires connecting the motor assembly to the condensing unit. You don't need to do anything to these to change the fan. But first, you should make sure that the fan actually needs changing.
Do the blades look bent or broken? You need a new fan and can continue on with this project.
Step 2: Switch the Fan Blades
Use a wrench to loosen the set screw that connects the fan blades to a spindle on the motor. Remove the screw and lift the blades free of the motor and discard the broken blades immediately.
Open the new blades and place the blades onto the spindle in the same way the other blades had been positioned. Reattach a set screw to hold the fan in place making sure that the fastener is secure. Loose fan blades can be noisy or potential safety hazards.
You can now flip the motor assembly over so that the fan is at the bottom and place the assembly back in its hole at the top of the condensing unit.
Reattach the fasteners for the fan guard and then restore power to your unit.
For air conditioning services, contact a company such as JV Systems Air Conditioning And Heating of Tampa Bay Inc.
Share23 March 2016
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