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Hello,I just moved into a newly built house. The AC unit is not firing up. I checked the breaker and it is live, as well the disconnect grey box outside is live. The wire entering and exiting the box is live. I changed the thermostat to cool and turned temp down. Still the ac unit does not fire up. Does this sound like a thermostat problem or something on the unit?
I will be glad to help you with your question today.
You need to remove the cover off the power unit outside and see if the compressor will run by manually activating the contactor.
locate this part and press the square peg in the center of the device
if you have power to the unit, the compressor will start up.
as long as you hold the button in
am i looking at the disconnect box or the actual unit
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you need to remove the cover where the power line enters the unit, outside
ok
you will need a nutdriver or screwdriver to remove the screws keeping the cover on
im likely gonna have to do this tomorrow
i can try and go out here in about 10 min.
Ok, take the cover off and locate the part that looks like the picture. In the middle is a peg or button that will move when you press on it. when you push is down, you will complete the power circuit to the compressor and it should run if you have power. If is does not, then you need to find why you have no power. If the unit DOES run then the problem lies with the thermostat circuit. The thermostat provides the power to that device to activate it and turn on the compressor. So you should be able to at least narrow it down as to where to look. If this is a new house, I would think that it is under warranty.
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ok...the unit fired up when i manually pressed the button
OK, then the problem lies with the control system. I would check the small wire that leads from the contactor to the house. Its possible that it got disconnected. The wire is connected to the small plugs on the bottom of the contactor and leads back to the thermostat.
there is a ton of different color wires, blue, yellow brown that are all nutted together that all look secure. there is a orange wire, i believe a 10 gauge wire entering the disconnect box. a red wire that travels through the disconnect box and travels straight to the compressor. as well a white and black that go to the breaker in the disconnect box......is there supposed to be another red wire somewhere that travels from compressor into the house to control the thermostat. if so, there is no wire that i can see
Not knowing what type of control system you have on your new home puts me at a disadvantage to give you exact information on how to get it working. you may have a heat pump + heat system or other configuration. All require different wiring configurations to make them work. All I can tell you at this time, is your problem is in the thermostat wiring. If you can manually operate the compressor, that means that the thermostat is not sending the signal for the contactor to close. This is a new home and I can only assume that the electrician did not wire it correctly. You can have just one wire out of place and it will not work. My advice at this time is to contact the installer of your system and have him come back and correct the problem. You can easily damage your system by changing something incorrectly. If this was just an easy fix, that could be done with a screwdriver, I would surely tell you. Problems like this are a task for even a seasoned technician. Hopefully its just a wrong connection and a quick fix.Appliance Tech Care41119.7090075231
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