Air conditioner keeps throwing the breaker

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dcarreno2006

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Posts
6
I have an 1981 fleetwood southwind. Ive been using the a/c this spring and everything works fine. but today once the temp out side reached 101 the a/c shuts off. it trips the breaker. But once it cooled down a little It worked fine again. Has anyone had this problem? Any help would be helpful. The unit is a Duo- Therm Briskair
 
I can think of some possibilities, but nothing conclusive. Could be freezing up and it overheats and drives the amps up until the breaker trips. Or maybe the internal pressure gets too high.

Is this the original 1981 a/c?
 
Are you in a campground?  If so, when it gets hot and everyone turns on their A/C, the voltage may drop to the point that your A/C is drawing more current than the breaker can handle.  When it cools off, other A/Cs are turned off and the voltage rises, lowering the current that you draw.
 
As temps increase the compressor has to work harder (The unit develops what in Humans is called high blood pressure) THUS it draws more power and if the park voltage is a bit low.. Cause everybody has the same problem. CLICK.

Suggestion.. Pop the cover and clean the condenser coils.. This will improve it's ability to keep cool.
 
yes, as far as i know its the original a/c unit. Its parked at my house plugged into a 30 amp outlet. The previous owner had the same problem in Arizona in 103 temps.
 
What John said.

It may also be that the breaker is weak.  I've seen them fail in this fashion many times, and often, each time they trip, the current at which they will trip next time is a little lower.

So if it were me I'd replace the breaker with a new one the same size.
 
I agree. Breakers do age and wear out as well... (Breakers cost money.. Cleaning condenser coils SAVES money.. Hence the suggestion to do it first)

After seeing how much of an improvement it made to the one that is currently over my head.. I have decided to add the "Clean it" as step one on most all A/C questions..

Example: If the blower motor is frozen and not turning.. While you have the top off.. CLEAN IT

 
mine has done the same thing, when the temps hover around 110
and the park gets a little rolling brownout going on. Nothing I can
do about it living in the desert but it becomes quite a fear when I'm
at work and the dogs are inside, and the circuit breaker trips. It has
happened only a couple times and luckily my two girls were fine.
Getting close to retirement though  :) and I can leave the heat of
the summer behind me.
 
While brownouts will certainly cause an AC to work harder & trip a breaker, so will a dirty set of heat transfer fins.  If your line voltage is not low, it might be worth climbing up on the roof & checking for both dirty & bent fins.
 
John From Detroit said:
As temps increase the compressor has to work harder (The unit develops what in Humans is called high blood pressure) THUS it draws more power and if the park voltage is a bit low.. Cause everybody has the same problem. CLICK.

Suggestion.. Pop the cover and clean the condenser coils.. This will improve it's ability to keep cool.

Suggestion # 2: Dive into the inside of the entry duct to the unit and clean the coils from the inside too..spray simple green..let stand 15 min...thoroughly spray clean with distilled water in spray bottle.

Suggestion #3: Buy a Powermaster Model 30 transformer..it'll keep your volts up to push the healthy amp zone...
 

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