Yea there is a disconnect outside right next to the unit but it doesn't disconnect the inside.

 

Should disconnect the unit from all power from the main panel, if it is wired correctly.

 

This house was wired in 1971. It was probably correct for code back then.

 

In that case, a grounding wire was not required in 1971. If one was added later, you may be feeding power through an improper installation. Reguardless of the ground wire, no energy should be getting past a properly installed disconnect.

 

No power is getting passed the disconnect. The only power going to and from the disconnect is from the one breaker that feeds the outside unit, wich is where the disconnect is located. The only wires (at least from what I can tell) that go between the inside and outside units is control wires from the thermostat.

 

I'm confused, if the disconnect is off, the heat strips should be off.......yes?

 

Don't spend too much time or money trying to trouble shoot your air handler.

You are beating a .

 

No.
This disconnect is next to the heat pump. There is only one feed going to the heat pump. The other 2 wires don't go out to the heat pump, they go straight to the inside unit.

 

Not really trying to troubleshoot the airhandler at least not anymore. There is a small relay that I believe is stuck causing the heat strips to be hot. I may put an ohm meter on it to see if it is indeed stuck for my own knowledge. Then when I call the service man back out I'll know if he's feeding me a line of crap or not.
If he does I'll toss him out on his head and call someone else.

 

Good luck! Hope it all works out well for you.

 

Well I called out "DS".
I explained all of the issues that I'd found, Heat strips staying on, reversing valve not working, previous technician draining off refrigerant.
He checked the heat strips first......could not duplicate the issue.
Hmmmm????? Beats me!!!
Went to the reversing valve next even though I watched my buddy check for current at the reversing valve (24v) he found that there was no current to the reversing valve when the system was set to cool. Really strange!!!
He jumpered from another control wire and we could clearly hear the reversing valve switch.
He quickly switched out thermostats but no dice. There were a couple of unused control wires so he swapped wires and the darn thing fired right up.
He put the gauges on it and sure enough it was low on refrigerant.
Funny, he asked the guys name who drained it off and when I told him he grinned for a second and then smoothly went to a completely non emotional face. My guess is he doesn't have a lot of respect for the previous guy.
Anyway it's cooling quite well right now and this last guy was wide open in explaining and showing me what he was doing. The other two guys kinda talked in circles and wasn't real specific when answering my questions.

 

Ron, put an amprobe around one leg of the high voltage wires.(240). If it is drawing amps. (22, 44) with the t stat off then something is wrong. Maybe a low voltage short (red to white), stuck sequencer, stuck contactor, or even the t stat itself. The high amp. draw will be the sure fire way to tell if the strips are on. Heat pumps in heat mode won't put out 120 air. Do you hear the swoosh of the reversing valve on a call for cool? Is the reversing valve (SOV) getting 24 volts? The contractor should not have sold you a mis-matched outdoor unit. Rich

 

Oops, I didn't see you last post Ron. My guess is the outdoor unit was bringing on the strips. Rich

 

I don't know.....I had pulled the disconnect next to the outside unit, had the thermostat set to off and 2 of the three breakers turned off. I pulled the third breaker and it cooled down. Not sure why it wouldn't heat back up after the technician came out. I've checked it several times since and it's staying cool.
Confusing!!!!

 

Check the size of the breaker and the size of the wire coming from that breaker.