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I am trying to replace this AC condenser fan,

enter image description here

It says 825 RPM, FRAME 48Y, FLA 1.4, PH 1, HP 1/4.

Obviously the voltage of the replacement must be 208-330, and run on a capacitor of 10 MFD 370VAC (or i have to replace the capacitor too). But how much of the RPM, FRAME, FLA, PH, and HP, matters?

Evan Carroll
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All of this matters. In addition, the shaft diameter and length are important as is the rotation of the motor, CCWLE, which is "COUNTERCLOCKWISE LEAD END", the direction of rotation when looking at the end of the motor where the wires are typically connected.

JACK
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Do yourself a favor . Take that picture and a pic of the condenser unit's info tag to an AC supply store. They will get you the correct fan motor that works with your unit.

If you are nice to them and they are cool, they even will tell you ( some part guys have labeled) what wire go where.

Searching in the net for info and parts is far more complicated than what it has to be.

RMDman
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Most of it is necessary though some of it is probably so common you needn't concern yourself with it. I believe 99% of AC units for the home are single-phase, frame 48Y, and if they're not OEM they're probably reversible.

  • 825 RPM is a common RPM. There are some RPM motors that are 1100. If you put a 1100 RPM motor in an 825 RPM you risk triggering the overcurrent protection.
  • 1/4 HP is a measure of the watts the motor takes. 1/4 means it'll draw 186 watts of power. If you get a 1/5 HP motor it will only draw 149 watts of power, which means you have potential for undercurrent or not having enough power from the motor to push the fan.
  • Frame 48Y is the motor type. I'm not 100% sure you can get an AC motor that isn't Frame 48Y for a condenser fan. All the ones I saw had this.
  • PH1 means it's single phase, most residential AC units are single phase.
  • FLA 1.4 means full-load amperage, that's the draw at the rpm/voltage/hp.
  • MFD of the capacitor is also very important. This fan in this picture requires an 10 MFD cap. I replaced it with a fan that needed a 5 MFD cap. Because of this, I bought a 5 MFD cap and left empty the taps on my dual-purpose cap for the fan. Note on AC Capacitors I always buy 440 volt. But you can if you wish go down to the required voltage the fan needs and save a dollar or two. You can oversize on voltage, but your MFD must be +/- 20% (but seriously for the <$10 just buy a new one that's proper 440 at the rated MFD).
  • CCWLE is counter-clockwise. In theory, you can find a fan so cheap that it's uni-directional and spins the wrong way. However, most fans that aren't OEM replacements seem to be reversible. And most OEM fans that are uni-directional seem to be counter-clockwise.

I would be mostly concerned with HP, RPM, and the capacitor rating/mfd.

I believe the rest of the metrics are probably very common: single-phase, 48y, FLA (probably runs static with HP and RPM), reversibility.

In addition, check to see whether the fan is 3-wire or 4-wire. It's not hard to move from 3-wire to 4-wire, but it is slightly more work. You can see on the connection diagram sticker the fan in the question is 3 wire. I replaced it with a four-wire fan.

Evan Carroll
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