Electronic Portable Air Conditioner

Why does my window air conditioner shut itself off after 5 mins and trips the power outlet?

The window air conditioner was in my ex's house and was moved to my home. Upon plugging it in I realized the plug looked burnt on the prong. So I replaced the plug thinking his outlet wasn't the right amperage? so it burnt it. I plug it into a power outlet bar and it will run for about 5 minutes then trips that power bar.What is going on in the air conditioner? Is it something I can fix myself?

Public Comments

1. you need to have an electrician come in and test your outlets, they may not be wired correctly.
2. its a short! considering i know nothing about HVAC, i say either take to someone or go buy another one. Shorts inside of something unless they are bad enough to cause blackening or smoke are near impossible to find. You'd sit for hours tracing wires and following leads. Buy a new A/C unit.
3. First and foremost, this is NOT something you should try to fix yourself! There are several things that could be wrong and none of them are safe for you to try and rectify yourself. It could be faulty or underrated wiring in your dwelling, this is likely to be part of the problem because of the "burnt" plug you described. Continuing to attempt to use this airco is going to systematically damage the insulation on more of the wiring in your home causing more damage. Please stop doing it. Depending on what it actually being tripped (ie: is it a circuit breaker or a safety switch?) this could also be a symptom of an earth leakage in the airco unit itself. Again, this is not something you should try to fix yourself and similarly you should stop using the airco in question. Whatever the case, you are going to need to get an electrician to come and check things out. Not so much with respect to "fixing" the airco, but rather to ensure that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the wiring in your home AND that the use of the airco has not caused other damage as well. The reason why the airco runs for 5 mins or so is because it takes a short amount of time before the airco compressor starts to run. Up until that point the energy being drawn is less. When the airco is in full swing it draws enough power to overload underrated circuits and if there is an electrical fault with the airco itself, it may only become apparent when the compressor starts to work (see above).
4. you need a detecated circuit for a air conditioner. and by your question are you trying to run the air conditoner on a power strip with other things pluged in to it. BIG NO NO!! FIRE HAZARD!!!