What Causes Air Conditioner to Stop Cooling While Not Moving Air?

Power Surge

• A thunderstorm could have knocked out the power and caused a power surge in your home; this, in turn, might have tripped the air conditioner’s circuit breaker. Inspect the switch at the household breaker panel. If the switch is not flipped “On” position, then the breaker is tripped, and power is unable to flow to the unit. Flip the switch back to the “On” position to close the circuit and restore power to the unit.

Incorrect Wiring

• The power supply to the circuit breaker could be intact and the circuit breaker properly set, but electricity may fail to operate the unit if the positive and negative power lines between the unit and breaker are wired to the incorrect power terminals on the unit. Incorrect wiring will either prevent the unit from turning off or prevent it from powering on. If you think your air conditioner is mis-wired, shut off the air conditioner at the circuit breaker and contact an electrician to take a look at the wiring.

Trash

• The fan housing on the air conditioner unit contains the fan, its axle and the fan motor. It also protects the fan from outside interference, such as from falling limbs and other potentially damaging items. However, sometimes debris, such as a plastic bag or foliage, can get sucked up into the fan housing, causing the fan to jam. This stops the cooling action and the forward movement of the fan. Remove the debris after you've shut off power to the unit and removed the access panels.

Fan Housing

• As with debris, the fan housing can prevent the fan from turning inside the air conditioner if the fan is mounted incorrectly on the axle. After turning off the breaker to the unit and removing the unit panels to access the fan housing, manually spin the blades around to determine if they hit the side of the fan housing. If the housing interferes with the fan's movement, cool air cannot blow into the home, and the compressor runs the risk of freezing. Take off the fan from the axle and remount it correctly. The fan should spin freely within the housing.