I opened the A/C and located the compressor relay on its main board as shown below.
![](https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/2374351724346417324.png)
The solution was to change this normal relay with a solid state relay. Because of the way a solid state is constructed, the output signal always starts at a zero crossing. This means zero volts going through the compressor coil and therefore zero initial current. I highly recommend checking out this video from GreatScott where he explains this in more detail.
This is a screenshot of the compressor voltage with normal relay.
![](https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/1518871724347569868.png)
And here with the solid-state relay.
![](https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/1634651724347656173.png)
As you can see it clearly starts at zero crossing and that solved the problem!
![](https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/6900061724347774135.png)