Need help please

[99ssconv]

Hi guys, my outside a/c unit was replaced last July, I had a Carrier 10 seer unit, my home warranty replaced it with a Payne 10 seer unit. The carrier units compressor was locking up and causing my 50 amp breaker to trip. The Paynee unit worked fine the rest of last year but today my wife called to say the a/c was out again. When I got home I checked the static pressure which measured 110 psi. The outside temp was about 75 degrees with a humidity around 20%. When I connected the low side gauge it blew a bunch of oil on my hand, seemed excessive to me. No oil came out when connecting the high side gauge. I turned on the unit inside and found nothing coming on, found the 50 amp breaker tripped. When I reset the breaker the outside unit came on and made of heck of a noise, sounded to me like the compressor was full of oil. After running for a few minutes the pressures read low=57 psi and high=130 psi. The unit has been on now for a few hours and is cooling good. Any ideas? Thanks Kent

[duc dowg]

When I got home I checked the static pressure which measured 110 psi
what did you check the static pressure with?

[dave82323]

possible that the unit was slugging an excessive amount of liquid refrigerant which would cause very high amp draw in some situations. I had a unit doing this in cooler times and installed a external crank case heater to keep liquid refrigerant from migrating back to the compressor and all is okay, not to mention the unit is much quieter on start up... good luck what kind of metering device do you have in the evap coil?

[wasp]

Good call dave82323, compressors do make some racket and draw high amps on startup when full of liquid.

Could install a suction line accumulator and crankcase heater. That is probably what killed the first one.

[99ssconv]

i used my hvac gauges that have r-12, r-22 and r-502 readings on them.

[99ssconv]

do you think i should make a call to my home warranty? seems that if the unit comes on when they come out to check it out they will say nothing is wrong with it, when i have to reset the breaker that tells me something is not right.

[rsmith46]

Its working now, if it trips the breaker again call the installing co. or your home warranty co. Its under warranty. Might not want to tell them you hooked gauges up to the unit, they could void the warranty. Also illegal if your not certified.

[dave82323]

might want to pay a service call fee to find out what is really going on... sorry to say home waranty companys love to replace things,good luck you need it

[99ssconv]

i'll give it a few days, thanks for the info. i will never call the installing company, this guy came out 4 times before replacing the compressor and was a bad liar.

[wasp]

To check for a weak breaker, check amps at start up, if amps reading is less than breaker setpoint and it trips then you have a weak breaker. But if you have a compressor that is mechanically starting to fail it will eventually heat that breaker till it trips. All electrical connections good? Capacitor good? Bad capacitor will cause it to trip at lock rotor amps also. Hopefully it is something easy and inexpensive.