Cuts Out Every Afternoon: Trapped Heat in Outdoor Alcove

Cutting out every day between early and mid afternoon for about a month, then restarting on its own an hour later. Mornings are untroubled. A new water heater platform went in nearby around the time it started.

Failure does not reverse itself. Protection does, every time, as soon as things cool. A unit stopping at the same hours and returning an hour later is therefore reporting a limit being crossed, not a part giving out. The question becomes what raises its temperature at one time of day and not another, and that is rarely inside the machine.

A condenser rejects heat by pushing it away and drawing cooler air in. Put a surface close above the discharge and the hot air hits it, spreads sideways, and comes back down into the intake. The unit then cools its own exhaust, which gets hotter each cycle. Cool mornings absorb that. By early afternoon ambient has risen enough that the loop pushes the compressor past its protection limit.

Raise the platform, open it up, or duct the exhaust out of the alcove. Raising it is usually simplest and cheapest. What confirms it is a return visit through the same afternoon window rather than a test on the day, because the fault needs heat and hours to build. No parts, and nothing about the unit is touched.