# Condenser motor and Capacitor confusion



## Marty S. (Oct 31, 2009)

Black goes to the same as the old black. White goes to the other leg of the contactor, the one the black is NOT on. The two browns go to the new capacitor.


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## ryanru (Jun 24, 2010)

Thanks Marty-
Any Ideas on-

3. Where does the BLUE AC wire now go that was plugged into the old (HERM) spot?
4. Where does the Yellow AC Wire now go that was plugged into the old (C) spot?
 a- The Yellow wire mentioned above is exiting the bottom of the contactor- Can I Wire the white to it>

Thanks again!!!!!


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## Marty S. (Oct 31, 2009)

You still need the old capacitor for the compressor. Leave the C and herm wires where they were. Yes you can wire the white to the C terminal on the old capacitor or to the same side of the contactor that the yellow goes to. Both are the same thing so it doesn't matter.

You'll have two capacitors now instead of one. Don't think I made that very clear.


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## ryanru (Jun 24, 2010)

*Thank you!!!!*

Thank you very ,very, very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbup::yes:


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## frazwr01 (Jun 26, 2010)

Hi everyone -- I have a similar situation to the above poster: going from a 3 wire fan to a 4 wire fan.

My compressor fan in a 21 year old Carrier (model 38TK024300) started turning very slowly last night (probably about 100 RPM or so). So my first thought, after reading some forum posts, was to replace the capacitor. I did this, but I had to replace the old dual capacitor with two "single" ones. The uF and voltage ratings for the compressor and fan sides are the same as the original, so no worries there. 

OK, so this did not solve the problem (fan is still turning slowly and compressor doesn't come one [hopefully the compressor is in some sort of "protection mode" rather than just dead!]).

So now i'm replacing the fan. My original fan is a GE model HC35GE230A. The replacement fan I was just sold is an A. O. Smith model (#FE1018SF).

The old fan has a black (hot) wire, a yellow wire connecting to the C terminal of the old dual capacitor and a brown wire which connected to the "fan" terminal of the capacitor. The new fan has 4 wires: black, white, brown, and brown/white. The black and white wires can be reversed (via a small plug) in order to achieve the correct fan direction.

So, I've seen two options for how to wire this thing (and I'm not sure which is best, or if it even matters).

Option 1: connect black wire as before (same as original motor), connect brown to one pole of the fan capacitor, connect brown/white to other pole. Finally, connect white wire to same pole as brown/white.

Option 2: Same as above, but do not connect brown/white. 

FYI: the fan and compressor capacitors are bridged by a connecting wire right now -- I was told that this setup is the same as a dual capacitor. So to clarify, brown fan wire goes to one post of fan capacitor, brown/white and/or white motor wire will go to terminal #2 (depending on option 1 or 2 listed above). Terminal #2 has a wire going to a terminal on the second (compressor) capacitor. That terminal of the 2nd capacitor also has a yellow wire going to the compressor. Finally, the second terminal of the compressor capacitor has a thicker blue wire which also feeds into the compressor. 

Hopefully I'm on the right track... thanks ahead for anyone's advice!


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