Why does my central air unit freeze up with ice?
Question:Central air system is 5 years old. The outside unit does just fine, but the coils on the inside unit that sits on top of the central heat system gets covered with ice. Lots of ice.
Answers:
That can be caused by being low on freon.
your coils might be dirty, make sure that your inside fan is working,or you might be short on freon.
First check your filter, if it's running with a dirty filter or no filter, the coil could be dirty and restricted. If everything is clean, you most likely need freon.
The A/C evaporator likely is icing up due to a slight undercharge condition. An undercharged condition will lower the boiling point of the refrigerant, thus potentially reducing the evaporator temperature below freezing, causing ice to form. You should have it serviced to check the charge.
And oh yea, like answer above, low air flow over coils will also cause icing up. (There were 0 answers when I started to type this!).
mine does this when the outside drain line becomes dislodged from its original place and the water cannot drain freely, you may want to give that a check before calling out the expensive repair man !
Probably cause it's too cold outside and you don't really need the A/C My wife burns out a window unit every 3 years
I had this same problem and had to replace my unit but it was already 20 years old. It's frozen probably because the outside drain is clogged/ or drain pan if applicable needs to be replaced, but i will advice you to not turn it on until you get it looked at because it will cause water damage to drywall or your floors.
there is a restriction in air flow through the condenser coil.
it could be caused by several things.
the filter is dirty-change it.
there are fire dampers in the duct work that have failed- need to have them repaired.
coil is dirty- clean it.
obstruction at the intake at the air handler-remove obstruction.
continually runs, outside contactor may have locked into the run position and keeps running even though the inside air handler turns off or you have switched it off- several issues
can cause this, call a pro.
condensate line clogged- needs to be cleared (not the most likely problem, there would be water all over the place but it could happen).
there are other problems that could exist but not likely such as a bad thermostat keeping the outside running all the time,
low freon levels are the most unlikely source of the problem because the outside unit would also freeze up.
you can contact me if you need to, good luck.
This icing condition is caused by a number of things. One is as mentioned before, poor air flow across the evaporator. The evaporator is the thing on top of your furnace you see icing up. Check for a dirty filter, loose belt ot other obstruction including the coil itself being dirty. Another cause is a "low load" condition. This is caused when the return air is too cold. Your evaporator runs about 40 degrees colder than the air across it to absorb the heat. If the return air is 72 or lower, you are freezing the evaporator. It will be running at 32-30 degress. Water freezes at 32 and the moisture in the air is nothing but water. To fix this, try not to run the A/C so low.
Also, there may be a shortage of refrigerant. (that is the proper term, 'Freon" is just a brand made by DuPont, you dont call every car a Mustang do you?) If you have a slow leak, it will have to be pinpointed, repaired and the unit will need to be evacuated and recharged. This will need to be done by a pro. Everything else you can do by yourself but i would definitely turn the mode on your t-stat to "OFF" and your fan to "ON". This will melt the ice on your coil. After an hour the ice should be thoroughly melted and the evap should be dry. Then you can do the checks.
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