Why is there ice on my air conditioner?

Has your air conditioner not been cooling as well as it used to? Do you have ice on your air conditioner?  There are a few reasons this happens. When your line freezes your air conditioner will not function correctly. There are a few early signs you can watch out for to try and fix it before it fully freezes. You will notice your AC performance slowly decrease. When your AC performance starts to decrease, you should call a technician and have them come and inspect it. When your AC is starting to freeze you will have less airflow coming out of your vents. You will also notice more condensate drainage. Your system might not shut off when your AC is getting ready to freeze and your indoor temperature will not be as comfortable as normal. These are all beginning signs that your air conditioner is getting ready to freeze. You can check if your air conditioner if frozen easily because you will see ice on the lines that run around your air conditioner. Some of the causes of the AC freezing is a dirty air filter will restrict airflow and make the AC freeze. Your return ducts might be too small, your air ducts are blocked, or you have closed registers will also cause the AC to freeze up. A dirty coil can also cause a freeze up, that is why it is important to get your air conditioner cleaned and checked each year. When you run your air conditioner when it is too cool outside, typically under 65F, which sometimes happens at night, your air conditioner can freeze up. One of the biggest causes of the AC freezing up is when you are low on refrigerant. You can be low on refrigerant due to a leak. When you notice that your air conditioner is frozen the first thing you need to do is to shut it off. It will need to defrost before we can do anything with it. Do not try and melt the ice with fire such as a torch, this is dangerous. As silly as this sounds,if you call a technician when your AC is still frozen, they have to turn your heat on to expedite the melting. You can easily prevent the air conditioner from freezing up as long as you keep up on your yearly and monthly maintenance. You need to get the air conditioner cleaned each spring and you need to be sure you change your filters each month. Doing those two simple things will prevent a headache later down the line because your air conditioner will be more reliable. Bartlett Heating and Air can help you with all your HVAC needs so call us today!