Pardon the length but I know that if I don't cover it you all with just ask me anyway. ;-)
I had this Carrier Infinity system installed by Sears in 2009, IIRC:
- Heat Pump: 25HNAB648A003
- Air Handler: FE4ANF005000
- Electric Heat: 20Kw
- Electric Air Cleaner
A few years later I had an A/C failure and Sears did the warranty work. They took more than ONE MONTH to get it working and their troubleshooting technique was to replace parts, one by one, hoping that it would eventually start working. They never sent the same technician twice, in more than a dozen attempts. I don't recall what eventually fixed it. I think that there was a recall on the compressor that Sears failed to notice and had not installed.
A few years later and I got various communication error messages. The technician who came out determined that I had a problem with the wire going to the compressor. He ran new wire and that fixed the problem but now that I'm into the unit myself I'm finding that he left me with a bit of a dog's breakfast. He pealed off the insulation of the wire going to the thermostat (presumably so that he could connect his multi-meter to take readings .... and left the wires that way. NO INSULATION on the wires. Oh, and he left a few screws lying around inside the evaporator.
It is now a few years later and I have a blower motor failure message: FC41 Blower Motor Fault. I walked through the various screens on the thermostat and I got a collection of information that I am trying to understand before I roll the dice on another service shop.
What I see is:
(I tried to upload photos of my thermostat but they were too large.)
I ran the check system function but it does not tell me anything -- since the blower is not running there is no pressure, or air flow.
Where am I now? Well, it is about 692 YouTube videos later. It is pretty incredible that such a rat's nest of wires boils down to some basically simple ideas. So since I used to be an electronics engineer, I dragged my multi meter out of storage and dusted off my nut drivers and alligator clips, bought some new 5 Amp fuses to replace the one I blew in my ham handed attempt to jump the R to G and did R to B instead. Good grief!
From what I'm able to gather with continuity checks and voltage measurements, I might have a bad blower motor, but a bad controller board is still possible. My most persuasive (and recent) information is that when I have the thermostat call for heat (set 5 degrees above ambient temperature) the motor LED on the control board flashes rapidly and the blower motor "chatters". Squinting into the squirrel cage with a flashlight I can see that it is going forward a bit, then reversing quickly, then back again ... what'd in other contexts I'd call "hunting". It continues this for longer than I feel that letting it continue is prudent.
My next step is to have dinner then do something else completely different. In the morning I will probably pull the motor and see what is inside. Maybe something is obviously amiss? Burned? Swollen and leaking? Snarling with claws and fangs and snapping at me?
My question, to anyone who has put up with me so far, is: any ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts? Temperatures are dropping so if I don't resolve it soon, I'll be forced to endure the tender mercies of the likes of the guy who stripped the insulation off the wires in my air handler. Of course, his pitch will be that I need a new air handler ... and why not also a new compressor ... and maybe redo all of the duct work in the house. I've been down that path and there lies not much else but madness and the grave.
Thanks for reading and I'll really appreciate any thoughts you might have.
