You’re concerned.
Your central air conditioning isn’t cooling your home very well. So you go to check the inside unit and, lo and behold, your central AC’s inside unit is frosted over! (Which you probably find strange considering it’s summer).
What could be the problem?
There are 2 main issues causing this. Read on to learn what they are and what to do about them or reach out to us for expert air conditioning repair in Framingham, MA and the surrounding area!
Call (508) 881-1500Reduced airflow to the inside unit will cause the refrigerant coil to freeze up.
First, we’ll tell you what usually causes reduced air flow to the inside unit and then explain the science behind why reduced airflow would cause the unit to freeze up.
OK so those are some “to-dos”. But why do you need to do them?
The evaporator coil (tubes forming the A-shaped part of the inside unit) has cold refrigerant flowing through it. A blower pulls in air from your home and over that coil, cooling the air.
But when there’s little to no air flowing over the cold evaporator coil, it quickly frosts over because there’s less heat to absorb.
When it’s frosted over, air can’t easily flow through the coils (it’s a solid block of ice now), reducing airflow to your home.
Here’s an illustration: Imagine you have a cup of water and every hour you add 5 ice cubes into it. You also have a hair dryer blowing hot air over the cup. Obviously, the ice would melt after you add ice into the cup.
Now imagine that you put something in between the hair dryer and the cup while you’re still adding ice to the cup. Because there’s something blocking airflow to the cup, the ice isn’t melting. This would continue until the cup is completely full of ice.
That’s basically what’s happened to the inside unit.
Follow our instructions from before to make sure there’s enough airflow going over the coils!
This is the most common cause of a frozen evaporator coil.
When your AC system is low on refrigerant, pressure drops causing the evaporator coil to get abnormally cold.
So when returning air hits the coil, humidity/moisture from the air beads ups on the coil and quickly freezes. This continues until the evaporator coil is frozen.
If you’re low on refrigerant you also have a refrigerant leak.
That means you’ll need a professional to find the leak and fix it before adding more refrigerant.
Worst-case scenario: The leak can’t be fixed and one of the refrigerant coils needs replacing. This is an expensive air conditioning replacement. So if your AC is 15+ years old, you should consider replacing it.
If the filter was not dirty and there were no problems with the supply or return vents, you most likely need to call a professional for AC repair help.
Nicholson Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning has a team of expert Framingham air conditioning contractors ready to help! If you live in the Framingham-area, contact us to schedule an appointment for AC repair!
Call (508) 881-1500Nicholson Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning is the best and most reliable source for electrical service. We are proud to be Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Elite Contractors, that have gone through extensive accreditation and training in order to provide proven high-quality service. Get in touch with us whenever you need to have electrical work done in Framingham!
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