Home A/C Problem

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Any HVAC people in the house?

My home A/C started acting weird today. The inside furnace is making a groaning noise but not moving any air. It's like it's trying to ramp up but can't. The outside condenser fan is spinning and the thermostat is clicking on like it should. When I switch over to heat, the furnace starts working again and hot air comes out the vents.

It seems like some switch is bad. I checked the breaker box and nothing has been tripped.

What could be the problem? Of course this happens during a super hot and muggy week.
 
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Multi-speed blower motor? What happens when you turn the fan switch on the thermostat to "ON" when it's in heat? Does the air stop moving (fan on position is normally high speed, same as A/C mode)?
 
Is there any like electrical switch that control the blower near the unit?
If yes, check make sure that switch is not burnt.

If the air handler fan have capacitor, you may want to check that.
Although a lot of the newer ones are DC Fan so it is more difficult to troubleshoot as supposed to just changing the capacitor.

While at it, you may want to check the capacitor on the condenser/condenser fan and start capacitor on the outside unit.

Otherwise, you need an AC Service to troubleshoot.
 
Blower motor is running in heat but not in AC mode, weird. Don't let the condenser operate without the blower for too long otherwise the evap coil will turn into a block of ice.
Any info on the age or brand of the equipment ?
 
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I know nothing about HVAC so I don't feel comfortable messing with anything. My homeowner's insurance covers HVAC equipment so I'm going to let them handle it. Some quick Googling pulled up faulty start/run capacitors like JMJNet said.

Outside condenser unit is a Trane and furnace is a Carrier 8000 Weathermaker. Both were there when we bought the house 10 yrs ago.
 
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At first sounds like a bad capacitor, but you said the fan runs in heat mode so that throws out that idea.
 
UPDATE: Home warranty company sent out their A/C guy today. He replaced the capacitor and the ice cold air is back!
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