Ok so it's been a HOT Sunday in my household.

We realized as I left to run errands that it was 5° warmer than it should have been.

By the time I got home to check it out, it reached 83° inside.

Went through basic troubleshooting and easily found a power line issue… turned out the 60A breaker on the main feed for outside had a bad leg.

Went and tracked down a replacement and success! We now have 240v at the outside unit! .

After a little while, it hit 85° and I realized it's still not right.

Nothing is making any strange noises, and everything appears to be working, except that it's not cooling.

It seems like the compressor is probably not kicking on (lines are staying ambient temperature).

I heard about a red reset button; couldn't find it.

Disconnected power from the inside unit and the outside unit, and left it all disconnected for about 30 minutes… still nothing.

I was hesitant to blame the capacitor that was replaced about 6 years ago, but now I'm not so sure.

I'm kind of stumped on where to go from here, and I'm dying a little in this heat.

Question from user Lopsided-Scallion-66 at hvacadvice at reddit.

Answer:

That capacitor looks bulged on the top in that picture.

You can test it with a multimeter but thats more than likely your problem.

Answer from user _JollygreenGiant at hvacadvice at reddit.

hopefully capacitor advice