Where the OTG A/C repair pros

Off Topic
1

So starting yesterday my AC started acting up.

As a FYI im a DOD Civilian that works on AEGIS weapon system so while im not an AC repair guru i can translate the general troubleshooting i do at work to the home system.

Its been hot the past couple days but weve had hot spells in the past couple months before and everything worked great.

What ive done so far.

-Checked start capacitor and verified that condenser fan and motor are starting up.
-Made sure condenser was vacuumed out and sprayed the coils with coil cleaner then hosed them off.
-Brand new air filter
-Evaporator coils look clean
-Condenser large line is sweating but no signs of frost
-Evaporator coils never show any sign of frost

When i turn it off for awhile then turn it back on it will cool for about 8 minutes.

With a temperature probe in one of the vents the air temp starts at about 80 with just the fan running, then when i turn on cool it will drop down to about 58, but after about 8 minutes the temperature starts climbing back up again.

If anyone has any ideas or recommendations im open to any help.

Only thing i cant do is check freon levels, which im trying to find someone who isnt backed up to do that.

edit

Last thing i did was open up the Evaporator coil cover to check for frosting. And its been running for the past 30 minutes with 60 degrees coming out the vent, so thats a positive.

But i dont like the intermittent nature of this so will continue trying to research the issue.

2

Well my brother is the pro for this sort of thing, but he’s walked me through diagnosing our walk-in fridge where I work, so I’ll toss my thoughts on this.
If the freon is low the compressor will cycle a lot. You say it runs for 8 min then the temp starts climbing (I’m guessing this means the compressor has stopped.), if after 1 or 2 min (maybe less) does the compressor come back on for about 8 min then off again? If yes and you notice that this cycle is pretty consistent then it is likely you are low on freon.
If its turning off and doesn’t start again (and your sure the start capacitor is good) it sounds like the compressor is giving up. You may be able to get a bit more life out of it by using a bigger start capacitor, but the real fix is a new unit.
Hope this helps, and good luck.

3

Its been running strong ever since i edited the original post yesterday. I have no idea what did it. Last thing i did was banging on the evaporator cover with my hand trying to get the screw holes to line up, but that was on the opposite end from the coils.