I am trying to troubleshoot my Air Conditioner in my house before I call a service repair man. I checked the fuses and cant tell if they are blown. They have no glass to see in to. One fuse, when shaken, sounds like a blown light bulb. the other one doesnt have any sound when shaken. Does this mean that the one that sounds like a blown light bulb is bad?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

sounds blowen to me, but the question you must ask is WHY it blew, the same thinking applys to cars as it does house wireing.. dont put a higher amprage fuse in to make it stop blowing. the wireing could melt and = house fire.. cut the power to the house and pull the fuese and replace it with the same one..

 

Thanks MJ, will do. We had a power surge the other day, I'm thinking thats what happened to the fuse. If it still blows, then I'll be callin in the pros.

 

it's usually really easy to tell if those old glass fuses blow. The whole glass area turns black.

 

Fuses used for 240v circuits are not your standard screw-in glass fuses, they are cartridge fuses, and in the current ranges that are used in house wiring, they are usually not just clear glass, so it's hard to tell.

Yes, you blew the fuse. A normal fuse will not make any sound when shaken. Sometimes fuses blow over time because they're old, sometimes from power surges, and sometimes it's just nuisance tripping. Replace it with the same (probably 20A) fuse. If it does it again it's probably something to do with your compressor motor.

 

^^the only thing in my house on a fuse is the dryer and it's 240v, it has two fuses. Both are the screw in type, and turn black when they burn. Never used cartridge style fuses, know what your talking about though. The BEST way to test is to pull out the multimeter and do a continuity test.

I usually just replace it though, they are cheap and I've always got extra just in case.