Air conditioner problem. PLEASE HELP!?
Question:I have a window unit and the coils on it keep freezing up. There will be ice all over them. What causes this and how can I fix it? Best answer gets 10 points! (The unit is only two years old.)
Answers:
i have a masters license in air conditioning there's only a few thing's that will make it freeze up the most common is a dirty filter or dirty coils
the best way to clean the coils is take it out of the window put it on concrete take the cover off of it wrap a plastic bag around the fan motor and use a hose to wash out the coils trying your hardest to keep the electrical controls from getting wet
let the unit sit outside for a few hours and completely dry put the casing back on and put in window and plug it in
if it still freezes up you are low on freon and will have to take it to a a/c repair place it would be expensive to have an a/c repairman come out to your house and fix it
i hope this helps
Miine does the same thing...i have no idea why...With mine, it only happens when it isnt really hot outside though, I just turn it off every 2 hours or so, let it defrost, then turn it back on
Usually it's because the unit is too large for the size of the room you are cooling, or it's so cold in there already, it freezes up because it's cooled down already. Try letting it cool the room down, and then turing the dial to half the cooling temp, or moving it to a bigger room to see if that helps!
I know that it sounds counterintuitive, but this is due to LOW freon. I'll bet your unit has some years on it.
The bad news is that it's difficult anymore to find anyone to service window units. If you can't get anyone to come out to add freon, you could take it out of the window and carry it to a Sears Service Center.
I have found this out from experience, having two very old houses with many old window units.
insufficient air flow, it could be the dirty filters or the evaporator coil itself is dirty
This happens to me too if it is cooler outside than in the room I am cooling or if I have it turned up too high. You need to turn your air conditioner down. Turn it off and let it melt then turn it back on at a lower temperature. Keep trying that until you can find a temperature that it doesn't do it at. You might be better off just opening the windows if it is that cool outside. If this doesn't work then call a maintenance company and ask them about it but be careful because they may try to get you to bring it in. If it was a freon problem then usually it wouldn't blow cold.
your coils are either dirty, or you have a low refrigerant level in the unit. you cannot recharge this unit as it has no charging ports on it. A service tech can recharge it by installing a tap a line service port to the system..good luck
Listen to simone219..he gave you the correct answer..I'm a retired ac mechanic and said everything that I would have told you
There are several possibilities.
First, the ice is coming from humidity. If you are using a swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) for most of the house and the AC to cool this one room, the humidity from the swamp cooler is being collected by the AC and getting turned into ice. Solution: 1. Either use the swamp cooler or the AC and not both. 2. Put a de-humidifier in the room you are cooling with the AC, keep the door shut and hopefully it will collect the water rather than the AC.
Second, the drain for the collected water is blocked and has no where to go so once the water is collected by condensation by the AC, it sticks around, gets cooled down even more and turns to ice. Solution: Check the AC to make sure the condensation water can run out the bottom of the AC. Your drain may be plugged.
Third, the AC is too small for the area you are trying to cool and/or you are trying to cool it down too much. As a result, it has to run all of the time, making the coils really really cold and the collected water can not run off before it is turned to ice. Solution: 1. Do not turn it so cold so it has some cycle off time. 2. Get a bigger AC.
Fourth, the AC is wired improperly. If it is a 220 unit and is plugged into a 110 outlet, it will only run at half power and therefore will run almost all the time. Same problem as #3. Solution: Check the instructions and descriptive plate on the unit to make sure it is wired correctly. (Just because it has a 110 plug does not mean it is properly wired. Someone may have installed it without knowing what they were doing. )
Lastly, if you are running it on low fan all the time, not enough air passes over the coils and they stay colder. Solution: Try running it on high fan and see if you have the same problem. It is better to have the temp set higher and use hi fan than to have the temp set low and run it on low fan.
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