You wake up one morning and notice a hunk of ice growing over your air conditioner. In case you were wondering, no, an air conditioner freezing like that is not normal. While the ice might be convenient for the party you're planning, it's not something you normally want your air conditioner to be producing. This is a problem you should be trying to solve. Fortunately, we can give you some hints about what might be the underlying cause.
Cold Coils
Typically, when an air conditioner ices up the problem is coil related. The coil is getting way too cold and freezing the condensate forming on the exterior. As you might imagine, this ice builds up slowly until it looks like your unit is ready to go sink the Titanic.
That being said, while air conditioner freezing is almost always coil-related, there could be a number of coil issues at work.
Potential Ice Makers
- Regionally and seasonally, night air can be much cooler than daylight air. Your problem could be as simple as the air conditioner running all night when it really shouldn't be. Fortunately, that's an easy fix. Turn it off when the night time temperature drops.
- Your air conditioner refrigerant might be low. Call a service technician to check the levels and, if need be, get some more coolant running through the coil.
- Is your air filter dirty? Inferior air flow over the coils could be causing the problem. Clean or replace the filter and start doing so on a regular basis.
- Check the fan too. Inferior air flow might be the source of your troubles.
Above all, make sure you solve this problem. An icing coil will eventually damage the compressor and, if that happens, your air conditioner won't be making ice or doing much of anything until the problem is fixed.
