Intermittent partial shut-off - need help

[cusser]

I have a 5-ton Trane heat pump on the roof, maybe about 8 years old, never had a need for help with it before. Here's what happened 3 months ago, in case it is relevant. Got home, no cooling, went on roof and a piece of styrofoam was wedged between condenser fan blade and the housing; so I pulled out the fuses, pulled off the grill (whose openings were smaller than the styrofoam piece), remove the styrofoam (spun fan manually, seemed fine), and buttoned it all up again and it worked fine (assume lack of condenser cooling made compressor safety shut off). Now, about a week ago, got home and no cooling again, went on roof, compressor and condenser fan not working, spun fan blade with screwdriver through grill, nothing happened, so I pulled out the fuses, checked them (OK) with ohm-meter, pushed fuses back in, and everything worked fine again. Then two days ago (114F here), same situation, so here I climbed on roof, compressor and condenser fan again not working, and this time I only pulled out the fuse carrier, pushed the fuses a little up and down to hopefully improve contact, and re-inserted the fuse carrier, and again both compressor and condenser fan fired up fine. Anybody have any ideas, please?

[Gunnery Sergeant Hartman]

Are you a tech or maintenance man?

[cusser]

I'm the owner of the home. I am not a tech, but am versed in automotive AC systems.

[karsthuntr]

Sounds like your unit is shutting off on a saftey and when you pull power you are resetting it. Call your installer out to fix it for you.

[cusser]

Last night it started blowing warm again; this time I just switched from "cool" to "off" at the thermostat, then waited a few seconds, then switched back to "cool" is that any additional information that might help?

[t527ed]

same thing as turning power on and off. sounds like unit is locking out on safety and you are just resetting it. keep doing that and you could make a small problem a big one. get installer to look at it.

[Senior Tech]

Regardless of expertise this is NOT a DIY site.

DIY threads, questions and answers have a life of their own. What happens, if we post repair instructions that injures the person whom we thought was qualified?

We have Forum Rules (http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=1241) not to anger you, but because they are well thought tried and true.

We all want to help, but we just can't due to the difficulties of working on the other end of the computer and safety. If we tell you, we tell everyone once it’s posted. It’s here for all to read and try.

Thanks for looking at it from our point of view.

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