Has Anyone had issues with Bryant 134SAN / Carrier 26SCA4 black molded compressor plugs burning up and destroying…

Oddly enough, this June I had a no cool on a Carrier package unit. While I was on the roof trying to diagnose the issue, I found the first stage compressor’s plug was melted. As I was doing a little bit more diagnosing on the unit, the Bryant package unit directly behind me erupted refrigerant out of its compressor terminals. Scared the absolute crap out of me! Lol. Lots of black smoke coming out of it and sadly nothing you can do except kill power and let it leak out. That being said, I doubt it is solely a Carrier/Bryant issue. Those compressors are probably used in all sorts of condensers. But from my understanding, the compressors are meant to blow out of the plug/terminals for safety. The causes are usually an electrical issue or high running pressures. If that’s not correct, someone please let me know. First time it ever happened to me and we couldn’t find anything else wrong with the systems except the coils being a little dirty. Units were R-410 and both about 7-10 years old. We ended up swapping out compressors on them. Did you install this unit or just came to diagnose?

We installed less than 5 months ago. No refrigerant loss. Weighed refrigerant after recovery and charge was correct. Appeared to have started in the plug and not the compressor terminal,but we can’t be sure of that. We replaced the contactor and capacitor but they both ched out ok . Line voltage checked out ok. Interestingly the new compressor was sent with a new compressor plug of a completely different design.

Interesting.. Sadly that's the same outcome we had here. Not really sure what actually happened because once we got everything back up and running, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I can't remember if the new compressors we received had different plugs or not. Maybe the old plug became loose on the terminals and created enough heat to eventually melt the plug? Hopefully the new compressor and plug do not have the same issue.

I'm both a Copeland technical specialist and other support areas. The compressor terminal are just a weak point in the compressor body and are not intended to be a pressure relief. Blowouts like this nasty one, might be due to the compressor having run into a vacuum, but not necessarily only that.

I guess I meant more of it is a weak point, not a pressure relief spot. But thanks for clarifying!