Mouse in the a/c

First time this season I turned on the a/c...doesn't work. Bummer...do some troubleshooting, and the thermostat is working. Check the breakers, all is well. Open the compressor control panel...mouse fried across the starting cap with the tail caught in the contactor! The contactor has 24vac across the coil and 240vac at the input contacts, but it seems frozen (bits of stuck tail!?) and can't (but I didn't press really hard) close the contacts. Hard to tell what is holding them apart, as the mouse shattered when I knocked it out - couldn't tell if there were any parts left inside.

Anybody know where I might have a chance of finding a 30A contactor on a holiday weekend? My guess is wait for Tuesday. Oh well, who needs a/c anyways? (ME, I'm spoiled, but I'll manage)

What do you think about the starting cap? That's where most of the carcas was. My thought was that if it shorted out internally, it would have popped the breaker.

Yuk...
I had one in my furnace once.

Well, I thought about this overnight, and this morning I was able to work the contactor free and the thing is now running. I was going to have the thing serviced, so I'll see if I can get them to replace it at that time. May give it a shot of WD-40 as it was still a little stiff. I double-checked the coil continuity, and it was good, so the only thing left was that the contactor arms were stuck...probably some bodily fluids when the mouse met his demise...

Double -yuk, mouse body fluids the imagery is preposterous!
Jad, buy a new one, lol. My mouse was just incinerated.

Hey! It could be worse. I just read about a janitor in a Phoenix school who traced a bad odor to a would-have-been burglar that had died in an AC duct while he was breaking in.

Yeah, saw that...the compressor is outside. The thing shattered when I knocked it off...he'd probably been freeze-dried over the winter... Anyways, it's been going on and off normally with the thermostat, so I guess all is well.

Reminds me of my apartment maint. days. We had a tenant who installed his own washer and dryer. He miswired the dryer so that the entire dryer and metal vent pipe was "hot". Then he went on vacation.

A chipmonk tried to bite through the vent in the wall and caught on fire from all the current going through his body. This set the whole building on fire.

Those vermin!
The nerve.