The air conditioner for this house isn't the newest unit on the block, not by a long shot, but it does its job well enough. I upgraded it with a hard start kit a while back to handle an occasional stalling issue it would have when powering up, and it has been running well ever since.
However, it still has its minor issues here and there. For example, the wiring is a bit dumb.
A 3/4 flexible whip connects to the AC unit, which goes into a cut-off switch box, and then that switch box is connected to the main panel by some 3/4 EMT conduit which, for reasons I perhaps will never understand, uses an LR conduit body to turn the corner rather than just using a 90 degree bend.
None of this really makes much sense. 3/4 is way too big for a 10/2 circuit, not to mention that the plastic is sun baked and falling apart. The shut-off switch is less than a foot from the panel, which could easily, itself, serve that purpose. And the conduit is just... why.
Oh, but it gets better. Upon disassembling this mess, I discovered that the wiring between the cutoff switch was two 10ga stranded conductors, both with black insulation; not ideal but perfectly serviceable. But the ground was, for some reason, a stranded, green insulated, 6ga wire??? And then after the cutoff switch things completely reversed: the ground was now a solid 12ga bare conductor, and the two hots were an 8ga black and an 8ga white with black tape.
Clearly someone was using up some of their assorted lengths of wire.
Anyway, I pulled the flexible conduit and started hooking up the new whip, but I noticed part way through that I had neglected to account for the knockout sizes. They had been punched out for 3/4 inch conduit, but I had purchased a 1/2 inch whip. It came with one set of reducing washers, but I'd need another set to finish the job.
Not the greatest place to stop for the day but at least it's not AC weather yet outside.
The old flexible conduit was definitely in need of replacement though, as you can clearly see.
It had seen better days.
Anyway, the next morning after a quick trip back to the Home Despot I was able to finish up the job.
Much more sensible. It still needs a bit of touch-up paint but I can take care of that at my leisure. The good news is that the AC still works, though I did notice that the contactor was looking a bit crispy on its terminals. I might think about replacing it one of these days, since it's an easily obtained $15 part, but as of right now it's not a very pressing issue.
The important thing, however, is that I was able to add a few more lengths of wire to my drawer.
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