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Help! Seeing Sparks on Intertherm blower unit

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:09 pm
by Bigm34
Hi all...I have an issue with my Intertherm blower unit (model #E3EB-017H) The drain pan around the coils was backed up and water was running down onto the blower and the floor for a few days actually until we figured out the problem was a clogged drain pipe. I fixed it and am in the process of drying the area out...but there is a small assembly (best I can describe it is an oversized D battery with two wires coming off the top of it) on the side of the blower housing and ever since we took the cover off the housing and set a fan in front of it to try and dry the area out there has been intermittent sparking going on with those wires. Is this simply from the whole thing starting to dry out or do I have a bigger problem? I'm not wanting to turn the air completely off since it's quite humid outside but I don't want my house to burn down either.

EDIT...found a pic of blower assembly...part that is sparking is the run capacitor. Hope it helps :)

Re: Help! Seeing Sparks on Intertherm blower unit

Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:53 am
by jpingram5
almost like the cap is discharging. with power off to the unit if you put a screw driver across the terminals on the cap it will discharge it. if your not familiar with electrical or dont feel comfortable doing this then call a service tech to check the sytem.

Re: Help! Seeing Sparks on Intertherm blower unit

Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:41 pm
by DaleM
Kill all power to unit, short the cap terminals with a screwdriver. That will make it safe to mess with. I'm guessing that there is some residue from the leaking you had that is causing the arcing. Pull the cap, using an all purpose cleaner (409, etc.) clean it and the terminals, wipe down the blower housing, put it all back together and you should be good to go. If the arcing persists change the capacitor.