UPDATE: I found a bad part - the starting relay had what looks like a ceramic disk with metal on the surface that was in pieces. Cap measures good. I am curious how that relayand disk are designed to work though. With the disk in pieces it looks like the line will still reach the run coil of the compressor. And the start coil will receive an out of phase voltage through the cap. Is the disk supposed to short the two terminals on a cold start and then open up once its running, or does it start as an open on a cold start and then short the terminals.

Also, my run coild is about 4 ohms and my start coil is about 8 ohms. Is this ok or should they be identical? It's an Embraco EGY90HLP.

-Greg

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OLD POST:
My fridge/freezer isn't cold. Looks like it was "running" most of the day while I was at work but no cooling. Fan is running and compressor was very hot to the touch (so I'm guessing the relays are fine) but I could not hear the typical compressor hum, and there was no heat on any of the freon tubes.

I'm suspecting the starting/run capacitor may be shot (this happened to my A/C compressor last year).

How common is a cap failure?

Is it a starting cap or a run cap on these compressors?

How long can a compressor survive powered but not actually pumping? Thanks,

-Greg