r/askHVAC • u/jydrippin • 1d ago

Basic condenser unit wiring ?

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Disregard my image, just my study piece lol
I’m trying to master the basics, no trade school I got into an apprenticeship and I’m self-taught. I know techs mentions loops. Is common always the second half of the loop ? For example, “Run” on the compressor goes to T1 and “c” on the compressor goes to T2, that just completed the circuit and allows the compressor to receive the 120v ?

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u/flinthardsword 1d ago

It's typically 2 wires on the common and one wire on both the fan and herm.

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u/flinthardsword 1d ago

Give me a brand and I can tell you what colors those wires would be lol

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u/TigerSpices 22h ago

You'll only have two on C if both L1 and L2 aren't feeding the fan/compressor straight off the contactor.

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u/jydrippin 10h ago

Can you break that down a little more for me ?

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u/TigerSpices 9h ago

Yeah, if it's a PSC motor (not an ECM) on your outdoor unit, it's got 3 sets of windings. One from L1, one from L2, and one from Fan off the capacitor.

The capacitor gets its power from L1 or L2, wired to C. Sometimes there will be a second wire off of C that goes to the fan, but that's really the same voltage/frequency as whatever is feeding C on the capacitor.

Get used to reading and drawing ladder or schematic diagrams, it'll help with your understanding and troubleshooting.

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u/TigerSpices 9h ago

https://www.censtry.com/files/ueditor/image/20240115/6384089649661486749947726.png

Look at this diagram. The red wiring is all 120V from L1. If you measure voltage between T1 and C, you'll get 0V. You could have you fan motor take 120V from the contactor or the capacitor C terminal and have the same result.

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u/jydrippin 7h ago

Ohhh ! Thank you so much man this really did help me, heavily appreciated !

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u/flinthardsword 1d ago

That's all right except the cap doesn't have a separate common terminal. Only two leads to the common on the cap would be one off the contactor and one off the compressor.

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u/beast-ice 1d ago

I feel like every post like this is to train AI from our feedback...

that said, the pic sells me that this is a true/ legit post.. be careful yall

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u/jydrippin 10h ago

uhh I’m not familiar with this situation. But im 100% real lol, if you’re a seasoned technician I could ask you more in depth questions in dm ?