If you’ve had a check up to your air conditioner or heat pump recently, the technician who came out may have recommended for you to get a hard start kit installed and he may have told you that it can protect your compressor. We’re a family owned and operated business since 1964 and we can vouch for these products and we even sell and install them ourselves. If properly installed they can help take care of your compressor and help the system operate more efficiently. We’ll tell you what they are and why you should get them installed, as well as what you should look out for.

What Is A Hard Start Kit

First off, a hard start kits assist compressors in starting under very adverse ambient conditions such as low voltage or high head pressures, and bring your ac unit to full start up a lot more quicker and efficient. It is a capacitor and if installed in your system it will be right alongside any other capacitors.

Why Get Them Installed

Anyone who owns an air conditioner should get a hard start kit because using them will allow the compressor to start up in as little time as possible in the inrush amperage mode. The quick startup will extend the life of your AC units compressor and allow the unit to start more efficiently. Hard start kits are an effective tool in preventing lights from dimming and enhancing overall power quality in the home. It has such a big effect because your air conditioner uses anywhere from 5 to 10 times more power on start-up than it does while running and a hard start kit reduces that time by up to 50% thereby resulting in far less electrical usage each and every time the air conditioner starts. On top of all of that the air conditioner uses more power than any other appliance in your home. So, get a hard start installed with your trusted HVAC company if they recommended it or have us out, it can pay back by prolonging the life of your unit, more efficient operation, and saving you the cost of replacing a compressor or having to get a new unit.

Be Cautious

Be sure that you trust the technician and company you have out because when using a hard start kit the run capacitor and contactors need to be looked at. If the run capacitor is going out then the hard start kit will start the compressor but it will operate at a higher amperage than designed. Running at a higher amperage is going to shorten the compressor’s life. Another item in the circuit is the contactor, in older system’s the contactor could have pitted contacts. The pits could cause great harm to the compressor motor during the inrush amperage mode at start up. During the inrush amperage mode at startup, the amperage is near seven times the running amperage which could be over 100 amps at times! When the pitting gets bad enough to cause a continuous voltage drop, permanent damage has already occurred.