Condenser Fan Motor Wire Warning

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

Do you have a heat pump or A/C unit that has wires sticking out of the top of the fan like this? This is a serious shock hazard. Use caution and do not let pets or children near the unit. Please get it fixed!

air conditioner with wires and plug from the fan motor sticking out from the top of the unit

These wires are not supposed to be sticking out. The wires are the rotation leads and many careless technicians like to leave these wires exposed on the exterior of the unit when they replace fan motors. To safely conceal the wires below the grill requires additional work and many technicians simply find it easier and faster to leave the wires sticking out instead. The problem is that this is incredibly unsafe though. The wires are live, in most cases, ALL THE TIME, even when the air conditioner isn't even running.

condenser fan motor with the reverse leads sticking out of the top of the fan grill

This is likely a case of "everyone else is doing it" so most technicians don't really realize there is anything wrong with doing this. This is a huge and dangerous error though. If the unit is on the roof, it is unlikely that anyone could ever be harmed by this, however many units are residential ground mounted systems. That changes the odds considerably. Unsuspecting people and animals can come into contact with these wires

dangerous fan motor wires with exposed high voltage metal connectors waiting to shock someone

In the pic above you see the arrow pointing to a metal plug-in connector. It used to be covered with a plastic insulator when it was new but as you can see from the picture the insulation has eroded away in the sun and wind. These rotation leads are live with deadly AC high voltage! A pet or a curious child playing in the yard near this air conditioner could touch these wires and get shocked! An adult could set something conductive such as a metal box or a gardening tool on top of the air conditioner for example while working in the yard and the whole thing would be electrified! Additionally, even if the insulation is still intact, the wires are only loosely plugged into one another, and a simple tug on the line will disconnect the two leads from each other, leaving an exposed metal prong on one side. A child could easily unplug the connectors and get shocked. PLEASE BEWARE!

This is insanity. Someday this will probably be on the news if someone is seriously injured or killed and maybe it will get some exposure finally and technicians will stop doing it and start correcting the errors already made. If you call us to work on your ground mounted system and we see this issue we will gladly fix it for you, as we have many many times already. We do not want to see anyone get hurt.