Micro-Air EasyStart ASY-368 5 Ton A/C Installation

EasyStart - The most advanced & effective soft starter for all A/C applications
EasyStart is a one-of-a-kind, custom developed soft starter for single-phase motors like those used in the home and commercial contexts. It employs a 4-part start ramp sequence that is self-optimizing, resulting in the lowest possible start-up current. EasyStart can deliver a start current reduction of up to 75% of a compressor's LRA (locked-rotor amperage). EasyStart is the perfect solution that allows an air conditioner or refrigeration compressor to operate on a generator, inverter, or limited utility power when it would otherwise not have functioned. It can also be applied to air compressors and fluid pump motors.

Disclaimer
All safety precautions were taken this video is for entertainment purposes only if you’re not able to do this kind of work please hire professional

UPDATED MARCH 2023: Micro-Air revised its sizing to optimize the performance of EasyStarts installed on Home HVAC units. The change occurred subsequent to the posting of this video.





EasyStart 368-X72-Blue 4 to 6 tons

EasyStart 368-X78-Blue 2 to 3.5 tons

EasyStart 364-X36-Blue 1 to 1.5 tons

[TheFox]

I purchased an Easy Start 368 Blue directly from Micro Air. I had it installed by an HVAC certified technician. With the Easy Start installed the compressor on my four ton residential unit would not work. I disconnected the Easy Start and the AC worked fine. I contacted Micro Air by email and the technician was very helpful with photos and directions for the correct wiring using my wiring diagram and photos. Come to find out, The Easy Start was connected correctly the whole time. I completed the warranty info and sent the unit back to Micro Air at my expense, $29.00. Their customer service department received the unit and acknowledged that the unit had a loose wire. My unit was repaired and returned to me. I installed the unit and although it works it still draws between 52 and 74 amps upon start-up depending on whether you use a clamp gauge (74 amps)or the reading on the Easy Start (52 amps). I am not happy with Micro Air sending out defective equipment, acknowledging it was defective and having the customer pay to have that same defective equipment returned to be put into working order. Requests to Micro Air for a refund of my shipping charges have been ignored. Use caution if you consider purchasing from Micro Air their Quality Control and Customer Service has something to be desired.

[willemtenwolde]

I watched some great sounding install videos and got lost about the Brown wire
Then this "simple" and straight to the point straighten me out. Quick and easy explanation
Great teacher. Thank You

[JavierRivera]

2 things to everyone. 1- make sure to disconnect the power switch on the wall before starting working on the AC unit. 2- make sure you discharge the Capacitor before starting to connect or touch the Capacitor. After that, you are good to go.

[carlwellman]

Hi Gavin. I took the plunge and purchased the Micro Air easy start for my 5 ton air conditioner. Watched your video and got things all set up. Turned the power on and bluetooth app showed over current fault. After searching a few things, I cut out the brown wire and in my case it was a red wire that those two spliced wires were not making good contact. I spliced those two wires with a Seal wire inline splice connector and used a heat gun to shrink the connector, wow, what a difference, no more over current fault start ups, thanks for your informative videos! By the way, the easy start moved my LRA from 90 to 36 amps, amazing and runs so quiet!

[leew]

I see this is 2 years old, but I just installed the soft start on my 5 ton Rheem and went from 99.9A to 24.6A. Love it and now can size my whole house backup generator much more reasonably. The install was quick and easy, too. Bought a Klein crimper before I started to insure the connections were all made correctly. I’m just a DIY’er although was an electronics technician in the USAF 40 years ago.

[nyb]

Worth noting a few other benefits aside from generator start:

1) Better for compressor health because the in rush is reduced and it can ramp up.

2) I recently had the fan go bad and the coils started to overheat. EasyStart detected a fault and shut down the compressor to protect it. It would cycle every 5min to see if the fault goes away. The device helped me to detect an issue and fix it without the compressor continuing to run and possibly burn out.

[chrisbrown]

My 3.5 ton Rheem went from 108.8 rla before easystart down to 29 rla after easystart install, a massive reduction

[kevincarlin]

Great showing of the Bluetooth app for the 368-BLUE model. A 9000W generator -- with too much other power needed -- was not enough to start AC. I liked your microwave example. With EasyStart 368 for 60, 000 BTUs made this a great investment for you to run AC on emergency generator, off grid of inverter power sources and battery walls. Extends compressor life too. I see someone posting here already called it a game changer. On amp measurement, remember that all amp meters are not created equal. The oscilloscope in the lab will measure better than something you grab off the shelf. Quiet starts was an added boost. Great job.

[crazygravy]

I have a 5 ton Rheem with a stated LRA of 144 amps! My peak after installing the Easy Start is now 45.6! I had already purchased a 24Kw Generac (before learning about Easy Start) and would have had to do some load management. Now that won't be necessary. Power efficiency of the Generac should improve from reduced load not to mention, reduced wear/tear of the AC compressor. Really a good investment. And Microaire is a really good well run company!

[Tom-In-Ga]

I don't think I'll ever put this on my house A/C's simply because we rarely have a power outage. Since 2005, I think we've only had a couple of outages and they lasted less then an hour. Yeah, I realize it does take the harsh startup out and prolongs the life of the A/C. But my house was built in 2000 and the A/Cs are still going strong. If I do have to replace them, I'll probably go the SoftStart route then since the newer stuff just doesn't seem to be as good. On the camper though, absolutely! Nothing like running a 15k BTU A/C with a 2k generator. Great video, as usual!

[sandan]

I would solder all my connections especially the butt connector and I would use shrink tape as well. It maybe overkill for some folks but I have never had a soldered connection fail but I have had all kinds of issues with crimped connectors.

[kappaalpha]

Great video! So much clearer than the one from the company. I could actually see what you were doing.

[ThePcicarpentry]

You know what they say advice is only good if you take it !!!
I just got my micro air easy star installed last week. Thanks for the video. Looking forward to more of the same.

[jcsolomon]

❤ This!I'm inspired to install this on my AC, system, as well as eventual Solar for this power offset, of cost!😊

[djspyder]

Gavin, Soft Start installed. Pretty easy after primarily watching your video and a couple of others to get some angles .
2.5 ton carrier. LRA stated @ 80. Peak starting now after learning @ 25.3 -26.2 amps.
It's time to get a generator!!
Thx again !!

[nymack]

Perfect exactly what I needed to install my unit on my AC.

[rmillis]

Thanks! Installed mine yesterday by myself, this video gave me some added confidence in tackling this myself.

[tomroth]

I'm happy to see you do this video! Thank you! The Microair was a game changer for our house and back up power.

I put one on our AC last summer and love it! A couple things I found.
On our 30KBTU (2.5ton) AC:
Initial inrush was 60.2 amps - 6500 watt with 8750 surge generator would not start the AC.
After installing a 521 hard start kit the inrush went to 40 amps - 6500 watt with 8750 surge generator would start the AC, but struggled.
After installing the Microair soft start - I've seen it as low as 13.4 amps, but typically is around 18 amps once it learned itself. Our 6500 watt with 8750 surge generator would start the AC with zero issues. I have since replaced it with the Duromax 9000. (wish I would have known about the Genmax, but it wasn't out yet.)


We had plans to move and knew our new house would be larger. I wanted to bring the soft start with when we moved to install on our new AC. I contacted Microair and asked them what my options were. They recommended to me to order a larger soft start to handle a larger ac in the future and sent me a smaller start capacitor to use in the soft start for my current AC. This way, when our new house has an up to 4 ton AC, all I have to do is swap capacitors in the Microair unit. Genius!


One other thing I noticed during install. The contactor on our air conditioner is only rated for 30 amps. How many times can a 30 amp contactor handle 60 plus amps during startup? I wasn't sure, so replaced it at the same time as good preventative maintenance.


Thanks for posting the box information! I reconfigured the motor starter and original capacitor location under the cover to get the soft start to fit. It was a tight squeeze, but I did get it to fit. The box would have been much easier.

[mikegreene]

Great video, easy as my 364 I put on my RV AC. Thanks for posting!

[elmera]

Thank you Gavin for the wonderful video. From a fellow houstonian, I followed your method and bought the cover box and installed it as well. Everything is running to the T so far on start #1. Hope everything keeps running well. Would post a pic of my setup but i dont think you can do that on the youtube comment section; at least i couldn’t figure out how to. Thanks again!