No matter what time of year it is, your air conditioner can freeze. Literally, sheets of ice can take over your AC unit, leaving you confused and stressed about your lack of cold air in the house and the seemingly freezing air surrounding your air conditioner. Here are the top four reasons that you air conditioner might be frozen, and what you should do next.
Refrigerant
When the refrigerant levels are low or your unit is leaking refrigerant, problems arise quickly. Low refrigerant levels cause the remaining refrigerant to maintain a lower temperature, and it’s at that temperature that the refrigerant enters the evaporator coil. This causes moisture to take over the entire evaporator coil, causing it to freeze. As the unit is taken over by ice, restricted air movement only speeds up the freezing process. it speeds up If you suspect a refrigerant issue, you should contact a professional right away, as you may suspect low refrigerant instead of a leak and could make the freezing problem worse.
Air Flow
If something is impeding or restricting the air flow to your unit, the evaporator coil can freeze. This happens because humidity will collect on the coil, and when the temperature of the coil drops, this water will of course freeze. The impeded air flow keeps the heated air from properly traveling across the evaporator coil, making the process of freezing speed up significantly. When the evaporator coil is frozen, the rest of the air conditioner won’t work properly, causing the entire thing to freeze over. While an object or debris can absolutely impede the air flow of your air conditioner, other things might be reducing the air flow to the point of freezing up the unit. Collapsed or poor ducts, dirty air filters or coils, and damaged motors can all be responsible for reduced air flow and a frozen air conditioner.
Outside Temperature
Your outdoor air conditioner is not meant to function in low temperatures, and it can often freeze up if it gets too cold outside while it’s trying to run. Certain temperature controls can be installed to help your unit run in cooler temperatures, but until you’ve implemented one of these, a cooler outdoor temperature can definitely be a possible source of a frozen air conditioner.
What Should I Do If My Air Conditioner Is Frozen?
If you’ve discovered a frozen air conditioner, the first thing to do is turn the unit off. Keeping an air conditioner running while frozen for a long period of time can seriously damage the unit. Once you’ve turned it off and it’s thawed, you should do a quick check of the system’s main components. See if your filter is damaged or dirty, check to see if there is something obviously impeding air flow, and think about what the most recent outdoor temperatures have been. If one of those things doesn’t seem to be the obvious source of your frozen air conditioner, you should make a call to Comfort Experts. We will come out to your home and check all of the possible sources of the freezing, and we will then implement whatever tactics necessary to repair your air conditioner and keep it from freezing again.
A frozen air conditioner is definitely frustrating, but it doesn’t have to become a big ordeal. Call the professional AC repair technicians at Comfort Experts and let us take care of your AC maintenance and repairs today!
