Charlie:
Glen, in Spring, writes to us. He says, “I have a pair of four year old air conditioners made by Amana. An AC repairman recently told me that these units should always be installed with a hard start package.” What’s your opinion on this, Tom?
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Tom:
Hard start kits are not going to hurt anything and they’re very helpful. There’s been a lot of talk in the industry for decades now. Why aren’t they on units as just standard equipment? Manufacturers just don’t put them on. Most units are fine. They start up harder. It’s harder on the units. You’ll see sometimes the light dim in a house because a hard start kit will kind of keep that from happening. Do they have to have them? No. Is it going to hurt them? Not all. If he’s having trouble with the older units … Usually on new units, four years, you wouldn’t use it. But later on down the road, as the motor starts to wear, hard start kits are very common to put on units.
Charlie:
So it could cause a spike in his electric around the house?
Tom:
Yeah. Just on start up.