Can I replace 2 single capacitors on a A/C unit with 1 dual capacitor?
Yes. You will have the terminals HERM, FAN, and COM on the dual capacitor. You will take the wire that comes from the compressor to the Herm terminal, then there is a wire that comes off the contactor to the capacitor(s), that is the Com, you will run it straight from the contactor to the Com terminal. The fan motor will usually have two wires going to the capacitors, finding out which one is which can be difficult sometimes, but there are a few ways to tell. First, it usually has the fan motor wiring diagram on the side of the motor that tells you the colors and what they are. If that is not visible or accessible, then you can see if there are any brown wires. Those are usually the capacitor wires. Since I'm not sure of the model or brand of equipment you are working on, I cant say 100%. You will have up to 4 wires that come into the electrical panel. 3 wire motors are 1 Com, 1 Power. and 1 Cap. 4 wire motors add an extra Capacitor wire which can be eliminated when using a dual capacitor, but you have to know which wire it is. Commonly, there is a Brown wire and a Brown/White wire which you wire nut and insulate the Brown/White and just use the solid Brown. Process of elimination is used to find the Com on the fan. If you have found the capacitor wire, and found the Power wire, obviously the last wire is Com. When it's all over, you should have compressor on Herm, Common from the contactor on Com, Com from Fan on Com, and remaining wire on Fan.
Sorry it's jumbled a little, but without knowing what your working on, I can just give you the general basics. Hope this helps, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
×