Winterizing A/C Compressor?

[David Stone]

Greetings.  Having recently moved into a new house, I need to learn a bunch of home ownership stuff. Like how to winterize my A/C compressor.  (My last house did not have A/C.)
I've googled, and there is a lot of advice, often a bit conflicting.
Since I trust you all, can someone tell me what I need to know?  Or perhaps point me to a reliable source?

I'm located in Westchester, NY.

Thanks in advance.

[fredhargis]

I didn't realize you had to do anything. Guess I'll follow along and see what I missed.

[David Stone]

My dad never did anything.  But I keep reading about vacuuming, covering, waxing, etc.

[jteneyck]

My dad never did anything.  But I keep reading about vacuuming, covering, waxing, etc.

Don't do anything beyond cleaning out any accumulated leaves after they are off the trees.  You see lots of people cover them but that's not recommended.  If your unit sits where snow and ice could slide off a roof right on top of it then you should protect it so it doesn't get damaged.  I built a little teepee to cover the one at my mom's house, similar to what you see people put over small evergreen trees.  

John

[TDKPE]

I shut the breaker off for the outside unit, and leave it at that.  Just in case someone decides they need air conditioning in January.  

[blackhat]

Turn off the breaker, the crankcase heater in the compressor consumes power you don't need to waste.  In spring clean out all the accumulated trash in the unit.  Wash the condenser coils with a garden hose, turn the breaker back on and wait 2 days before starting the AC.

[David Stone]

Thanks everyone. .

[TDKPE]

Turn off the breaker, the crankcase heater in the compressor consumes power you don't need to waste.

I was thinking about that, and even slapped an ammeter on one of the circuit conductors before posting, but it registered zero.  I wasn't sure that applied any more.  Maybe mine's cycling, as it was below freezing last night.  Or the heater doesn't work.  Either way, opening the breaker is a zero cost, low effort move to potentially save money and wear and tear.  

[BrentDH]

I have had a lot of problems with mice deciding my a/c will make a nice winter home.  I had heard about the heater mentioned above, so I started turning off the breaker to make the accommodations less desirable.  I do not know if there is actually heat being generated or not, but I decided it certainly doesn't hurt.  I also set traps around it during the late fall to catch anything thinking about moving in. 

Once they chewed through several of the wires.  Another time one happened to straddle the two contacts of the start capacitor.  It didn't end well for him but it caused my motor to surge and stall repeatedly in the summer when I tried to run it.

This post reminded me to check the trap right next to the a/c unit. Yup. Got another one. That is number 6 so far this fall.

[toolmiser]

My HVAC guy in Wisconsin told me to do nothing to it unless ice sliding off the roof was an issue. He said covering them makes them more of a enticing place for mice and they won't accumulate moisture as much since the air will flow thru them.