Why is this A/C line frozen?

[Jim Oaks]

I can live with the 80. It's this A/C unit running my electric bill up all day and not really doing its job. The portable A/C is only good for using in one room. I had hoped that it would make up for the house A/C deficiency, but if I keep running the house A/C it freezes up.

I turned the house A/C off for a couple of hours and just turned it back on a 1/2 hour ago. I've had the portable A/C running all day. It's finally cooling down. It's 79 degrees inside and 85 degrees outside.

If I can't get a hold of this A/C guy in the morning, I'm going to have to find another company. The forecast for tomorrow is 104 degrees.

 

[sgtsandman]

If it makes you feel any better they set the a/c where I work at 80... after they leave the doors open as long as absolutely possible.

I'm not much better at home. Being that I spend so much time outside during the summer, the thermostat is set at 77. Even with that, there are times when I feel cold and have to close a vent or two, depending on which side of the house the sun is hitting.

Certain people at work like to freeze others out. A few of us are wearing sweat shirt like tops because the thermostat is set at 68.

 

[bobbywalter]

plugged up filter can start an icing cycle at the evaporator in the right conditions. did you see ice on your core? if it is completely thawed out run it without the filter for a few hours and see what happens.

though odds are its low on freon

 

[901wd#2]

Grab some wrenches and snug the fittings? Soap water test?
$50 sniffer?

 

[Jim Oaks]

The A/C in this house was pretty old when I bought it. They guy came this morning and put freon in it. He's coming back and installing a new coil on the unit inside the house on Wednesday for $1,800. At that point the whole A/C system should be within 2-years old.

 

[Snoranger]

The 2 main cause of an frozen evaporator are
Low freon
Low airflow over evaporator
You could also have an expansion valve issue, or the compressor stuck on all the time.

The only way to really know is put a set of gauges on it and look at the pressures on both the high and low side. Any halfway decent HVAC tech could tell you what’s happening by checking pressures.

 

[Jim Oaks]

The replaced the unit outside around July or August in 2032. Added more freon in May 2023. I had wondered if it was low on freon again. I turned the temp up while I was away, and turned it down when I got back, but it seemed like it was struggling to to cool down.

This feels like replacing an entire radiator just because of a pin hole leak, but what are you going to do.

 

[Shran]

The AC at my old house would freeze up all the time because the evap coil would get plugged up full of leaves and dirt but it was a package unit where the condenser and evaporator were both in the same enclosure outside the house.

 

[RobbieD]

The replaced the unit outside around July or August in 2032.

Well that's thinking ahead!

This year I gave the inside coil and the outside unit a good DIY cleaning, and it definitely made a difference in how well it cools.

The handiest thing to clean the coils' fins was a new barbeque grille brush with softish fine metal bristles.

 

[don4331]

You could come visit @alwaysFlOoReD and myself: It was 46° F last night; almost want heater on, but I'm fine with a jersey on.