Capacitor Rating Variation Compatibility

Hello Mr. Rubensohn!

You should definitely not use any of the capacitors you mentioned alone. Too small a capacitor will reduce torque and the motor will try to draw more current to compensate and thus likely overheat and can burn out. Overlarge run capacitors tend to cause excess current draw (and energy usage) and can also burn things up in the motor windings. Use the correct capacitor! I found some 55/10 440VAC capacitors on Amazon which appear to be dual voltage (370/440 VAC) rated. Here's a link to a specifically rated 55/10 440 VAC. https://www.hvacpartsshop.com/tp-cap-55-...

If you must, you could use a 60/10 or a 60/12 440 VAC. Keep in mind that the voltage rating of the replacement capacitor can be higher, but should never be lower The smaller capacitance is for the fan motor and the larger for the compressor. Since the capacitors you mentioned are 370/440VAC rated they should be ok as far as voltage.

As an alternative, if those values you mentioned are really all you can get, take the 55/5 and the 60/5 if there's space and you won't short anything out, and hook up the 55 side to the compressor, then hook up the 5 side of both in parallel to the fan. You could just make a couple of jumpers, one to go between the common terminals of the capacitors, and one to go between the 5 microfarad terminals. The two 5 microfarad capacitors in parallel will give you the 10 microfarads you need.

It isn't a good idea especially with smaller microfarad values to go way low on the capacitance, you will probably burn out your fan motor. so getting the right value matters.