Cover air returns when removing floor tiles?

Question

I had the floors replaced at one of my rentals.  Tiles had to be removed which created a lot of dust.  My contractor's workers had the AC at 69 and it stopped working.  Repairman said it was the capacitor -so possibly not related to all of the dust.  But - shouldn't they have sealed the AC?!

Nathan Gesner · Answer

How long were the contractors working in the home? I think it would take a lot of dust and a week or more to burn up a unit, but I'm not an expert.

I would have an expert look at it to determine if this was due to dirty filters or just a general mechanical failure.

Sean Macneir · Answer

Covering the vents and not running the AC would have been proper. Opening all the doors and windows to draw the dust outside with fans blowing towards the exits as well is good practice. I mean if you checked/changed the air filters and it/they were built up solid with dust and debris that could definitely aid in burning out a capacitor, but they do take time to burn out. Basically a restricted unit can definitely burn out a capacitor and anytime you set a unit too low causing it to  struggle to keep up (ex. set at 69 but it never drops below 76…) will keep a unit running 24/7. Which for most units is over working it. This leads to negative effects and needs for repair.