[Richard]

After reading Bill's post of the mini fire in his AC control panel, I thought to myself, that I should open both panels and snoop around. But, I didn't. 

Last night the front AC wasn't blowing cold air. Today's investigation revealed an overheated and degraded splice in compressor number one wiring. It was a quick fix but it did bring up some things that I thought I would kindly mention. 

I have had three similar occurences in my 9 year Newell ownership where an electrical connection degraded and melted. ALL were in the AC control boxes. There is a lot of current driving the compressors, and in my opinion the wiring on the boards and from the boards to the compressors in undersized. The bad connection at best creates heat and melts the wiring. At worst it just reduces voltage to the compressor and fries it instead. I could have easily had the same fire that Bill did.

The second location for electrical thermal issues is the 50 amp plug. The screws holding the wiring to the lugs loosen over time. 

The point is to add these locations to things you check from time. 

When we get home, I have a AC project that I will report on. With input from Russ I am going to add external high amperage contactors for the compressors similar to what you would find on a home unit. I also will replace in the splice in the system with soldered connections.