Are you sure it's the compressors that are dead?  Most newer fridges such as yours are run by circuit boards that handle defrost timing, temperature control, icemaker filter replacement time, etc.  As are most consumer electronics, the boards are cheaply designed using the minimum quality to do the job.  It doesn't take much to kill them, even though the compressor and fans are usually pretty robust as long as the condenser is kept clean.  I keep a section of that fluffy blue roll filter media behind the intake grate at the bottom of our Kennmore side by side.  2/3 of the bottom is intake, the other 1/3 exhaust.  I remove the grate and vacuum the filter about once a month and with two English Cocker Spaniels, it is FULL.  At our previous home I wasn't smart enough to use the filter material, so I had to wheel out the fridge every 6 months and vacuum up enough fur and dust to make at least another complete dog. 

Conversely, I recall the old Whirlpool top freezer model I had growing up in the 70's where my Mom would take everything out of the freezer and put in a pan of hot water to thaw the ice quickly to defrost.  But, with no moving parts except the compressor, I bet that thing would still be going today, and the rear mounted condensers hardly ever required cleaning.  It was QUIET, too.

Now it seems everything is Chinese.  I bought a 8000 BTU A/C unit for our detached garage/shop the other weekend on sale.  Whirlpool - Made In China.  It's a nice unit - electronic control with remote, and the price was right $159.  But like most of the reviews I read on current A/C units, it's LOUD, even on low, and it's fan noise, not compressor noise.  On high it sounds like it's at takeoff power.  20 years ago I had a 6000 BTU Emerson "Quiet Kool" in my bedroom.  Made in the USA, naturally, and it indeed was quiet.  But I bet even back then it cost a lot more than $159 iin 1980's dollars.   Maybe not as efficient as new units, but with mechanical controls (reliable - easy to fix) it would be still going today.  But I digress.....

Related to this - I do notice that when I was running on generator power (Markon 2-pole 3.2kW brushless), motors such as ceiling fans hummed louder than usual, so even out of a quality generator head, the power isn't as clean as utility.  But 8 hours of gen power didn't seem to hurt the fridge or freezer and that was two summers ago.  Haven't needed the gen since.

Chris

Is your setup using just the pressure switch to operate the pump?

Yep, just a Square-D pressure switch.  That's why they install 2-wire pumps - they are cheaper and do not require any sort of control box like a 3-wire pump.  Franklin also uses a BIAC rather than a mechanical switch to disconnect the split-phase start winding, so it is a pretty robust setup.  Since we have 200A 240V service, nobody cares about starting current demands.  Just bore the hole and drop in whatever is cheapest. 

On a side note - hopefully our water table will hang in there because there are a LOT of people on wells around here and we are in a pretty upscale area so there are quite a few homes with underground sprinkler systems keeping an acre or more watered.  I do like green grass, but I am not going to waste water or electricity to have it.  And of course, it will be MY well that goes dry due to my neighbor watering his yard in the middle of a 90F day with 20mph winds blowing...... 

Well (get it, bad pun alert),  I am fresh out of ideas why a capacitor start motor would be a problem. I would certainly think that both the 1/2 hp and the 3/4 hp should start without a problem.

An odd suggestion ..... try starting one of those cap start motors while your 1.5 hp motor is running.

Jens

The cap start motor ISN'T the problem (on my table saw) - it's the 3/4 hp split phase motor on the well pump and the 1/2 split phase motor on the sewage pump that I can't start.

I wonder if I can re-wire the table saw for 230V?  Then I could run it at the same voltage as the well pump and try that trick with having it running while starting the well pump.  I've heard that before (on this board I believe).  I'll have to look at the motor nameplate today on the saw.

Chris

Does the genny struggle when the motor is switched in ?

Yes, the generator head just packs up and goes home while the ChangFa just grunts a little and keeps on chugging.  The huge current demand just hauls the output voltage down so low the motor can't get going.  The generator is rated for approx. 14 amps at 240V, while the full load run current on the well pump is about 11 amps.  I can only imagine what the starting current must be...

Chris

The power-factor correction with capacitors is the same idea as the "easy-start" add-on boxes for motors, right?  Essentially, they just are jumbo sized starting capacitors, but only work on capacitor start motors, correct?

Reason I ask is we have a 3/4hp 2-wire, 240V well pump down about 120feet, and with no other loads on the generator (3.2kVA 2-pole Markon driven by ChangFa R185), it absolutely will not start, even with all the pressure bled out of the tank.  Conversely, I can start my 1-1/2hp table saw, which is 120V, using only ONE HALF of the generator windings because I don't have a 120V full power switch installed yet, so I get 120V from either half right now and 240V using all.  The difference is it is a capacitor start motor.  I can't start the 1/2hp sewage pump (120V split phase) for the basement bathroom either.

So, is there a way to make a 2 wire well pump easier to start?  It's not a huge deal but it would be nice to not worry about water during a power outage, but at least I can keep the food cold and house warm.

Chris

BTW, the price of a KAA-2 in a normal situation, installed is around $5000.00.  Thats labor and parts.
I fired mine 1/6/06.  Not only did I recoup the expense, I'm now saving.  Profiting,I think so.

David

I have a Keystoker stove - it's an older 90K Btu model with the direct vent option.  I picked it up as a "basket case" for $850 and spent last summer getting all the packed in fly-ash and rust out of it, and stripping the outside down to bare metal and repainting it all.  New glass, gaskets, ash pans, hopper lid, and a a few blower motors, and it looks (and runs) like a new unit.

I'm pretty far from anthracite country (in Illinois past Chicago) - but I have a local stove shop that carries coal stoves and bagged coal (Blasch@k) for a pretty decent price considering.

I'd rather burn the local, downstate bituminous, but there is a total lack of good, stoker fired stoves that will burn it, and I won't run it in a hand fed because there is also a lack of units designed to burn it and it burns much less cleanly in a hand fed.

Do the math?  Been doing it for it for years, as someone once said...

I'd burn coal for heat, too,  if Indiana coal was a better fuel. (No anthracite here)

Where are you located, Jim?  I used to live in Jasper many years ago, and we burned the local coal during the early 80s energy crunch.  Pretty dirty stuff.

Now I'm in N. Central Ill. and I'm burning Pennsylvania Anthracite.  I guess I'm a die-hard coal burner.  Looking to set up some sort of central heating system that is stoker fed and designed to burn the Illinois coal (which is basically the same as the Indiana stuff).

chris