What causes an air conditioner (for a apartment) to freeze up?

[dsc]

My airconditioner, a central unit, is frozen on all the condenser pipes. What would cause that? I would like some idea before I call my landlord.

[pitohui]

1. is there snow or ice on the outside?

the cause is a freon leak

they can recharge w. freon and keep it going awhile longer but eventually they will have to find the leak and replace the leaky part or it keeps happening every few months

been there done that got the tee shirt

[mkultra]

3. Happened to me once.

The A coil iced up. i had a filter right before the A coil that had soaked up a bunch of moister. Im not sure what happened but im guessing that the filter got wet and this allowed the coil to ice. I just took a hair dryer to it and repalced the filter. Problem solved.

[dsc]

4. aha

Yes it has snow and ice on the outside. I guess I will have to call them tomorrow.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. You have the temperature set too low.

It might need a servicing, cleaning and recharging of the refrigerent. Have you changed the filters lately?

[TankLV]

16. bingo! The unit is also overworking its capacity.

You could use a larger unit.

We live in 120 degree Las Vegas and ours never freezes up - altho we seldom go below 75 degree setting - and ours is old and undersized.

In a couple months we hope to have 2 - split unit systems - one for the living areas and one for the sleeping areas.

Could probably use a good servicing and checkup as others have stated.

[gr8dane_daddy]

5. Just had similar probs

Check the filters. Clogged filters restrict the air flow keeping the cold air in the lines freezing them. Simple solution is to turn off the A/C itself and just let the fan run for about 2 hrs. Go see An Inconvenient Truth and it should be okay when you return. Hope this helps. If this doesn't work, check to see if the inside motor runs. If not it may need to be replaced. However more often than not, the capacitor usually goes out first...cheap repair ($50 for capacitor plus labor).

[dsc]

7. The inside motor is the blower, right?

If so that is running.

[Feron]

6. Well at one of my former apartments..

The A/C grill thing (I dunno the name) would freeze solid and the repairman said it was due to a freon leak. The unit was in a closet and the filter would go under the grill thing but if I recall correctly the filter was almost ontop of the tubing stuff.

As you can tell, I know nothing about the components of an air conditioner, but it sounds like you need a repairman.

[RoyGBiv]

8. They're cheap ...

Basically.

If you have access to evaperator coils, usually directly behind the intake in apartment central A/C units, make sure they are clean. That's what causes mine to stop blowing out cold air. It gets clogged with dust and such. Also make sure your filter is clean. When units have to work to hard to pull in air, they'll freeze up, and in apartments with your standard, cheap A/C unit, you generally have to change the filter every month or so.

[mike_c]

9. the explanation is kind of technical, but basically...

...it happens because the refrigerant pressure (freon) drops too low too quickly when it is pumped into the evaporator portion of the AC, thus causing the early evaporator coils to become too cold. Heat is absorbed when the freon pressure decreases. Water that normally condenses on the evaporator coils then freezes because their surface is too cold, blocking airflow and preventing cooling of the room air. As has been noted by others, this is most often caused by decreased freon pressure, or a leak. Adding more refrigerant pushes the "freeze line" further and further away from the point where the freon emerges into the evaporator until it disappears all together, i.e. the freon pressure never gets so low that temps dip below freezing.

[Lithos]

10. Several causes

Not enough of a refrigerant charge, the evaporator fan isn't working, a dirty evaporator coil...

L-

[Avalux]

11. I've had that problem before -

for me, the refrigerant level was too low. It can also be caused by a dirty filter (make sure you've changed it recently) or just an older unit trying to work too hard.

You can do this yourself - turn it off and let it thaw (will take a couple of hours). Turn it on and see what happens. It may work OK or if it freezes again, definitely call someone.

[sandnsea]

12. Evaporator fan, coil

That's what it was when my actual refrigerator would freeze up and then stop blowing out cold air. I'm guessing if you turned it off and took a hair dryer to it, it would start working right again. It's probably a $2-300 repair, depending on labor costs in your area. Or you can blow dry your AC every few days, that'd be fun! hehe.

Or it could be something else entirely.

Until you get it fixed, I hope you at least get a cool breeze in the evening, I get cranky when it gets over 75.

[Fridays Child]

13. How's your filter?

My AC ices up and I have to turn it to fan only, for awhile--not fun, when you live in the desert.

[dsc]

14. thanks to all I am defrosting as we speak

Since I rent I am not too worried about repair costs I just wanted some idea of what the problem is. I also am considering moving for unrelated reasons so the length of time such a repair might take would enter in as well.

[951-Riverside]

15. Just show him the pipe & tell him he has 30 days to fix it

If he doesnt fix it call your local fair housing whatchamacallit.