3 Reasons Your AC May Be Frozen

There are a number of things that could go wrong with your AC unit, but you probably don't expect that the AC that cools down your house in the hot months can be subjected to freezing. However, your air conditioner can freeze and there are a number of reasons why this happens. 

Low Or No Refrigerant

The fluid that runs through the veins of your air conditioner is called Freon. When the Freon is low or it has leaked out completely, this will cause your air conditioner to freeze up and stop working due to lower refrigerant pressure than usual.

The way to tell if you are low on Freon is to notice if your air conditioner takes a long time to cool the house down. Watch for ice build up on the refrigerant lines. If the supply vent has warm air coming out, then that can be a sure sign of low refrigerant. 

Bad Air Flow

Without air flowing properly and moving over the evaporator coils, your air conditioner cannot effectively remove the warm air from your home. If the air flow is blocked or the air flow is not sufficient enough, then the evaporator coil's temperature will drop in temperature. As its temperature drops, the humid air that is not properly moving through your unit will freeze to the evaporator coil. A lack of air flow could be due to blocked air filters or damaged blowing motors preventing air from being properly blown through your unit. 

 Low Outside Temperature

If the air conditioner is run when the temperature outside is too low, then the pressure in your air conditioning unit will start to drop. As the pressure starts to drop, it freezes the unit. If you use the conditioner in colder weather this might be the problem. They are not designed to work in cold weather and may eventually freeze. If you think that your air conditioner has frozen due to running it at low outside temperatures, turn it off for 24 hours and allow it to thaw out and then do not run it again until the weather gets warmer 

If you notice that your air conditioner is freezing and can't troubleshoot it properly to find the cause yourself, call in an air conditioning repair service. They are aware of the myriad of causes, beyond the ones found in this article, of AC freezes and can fix the problem.