Because someone told it to chill. Get it? Look, if you can’t have fun at work you’re in the wrong field. Anyway, air conditioner ice is not a good sign. If your air conditioner already has a lot of ice on it, you’re going to need to call a professional and have them repair the system for you. While you’re waiting, though, take a look below at why it happens. You may even be able to prevent it from happening in the future, depending on what caused it this time.
Causes of Air Conditioner Ice
Okay, so the main reason why an air conditioner would ice over during a hot summer day is that there isn’t enough warm air moving over the evaporator coil. The coil is what evaporates refrigerant inside it to draw heat from the air passing over it. This is what cools the air before it’s blown back through the home. Without enough warm air flowing over the coil, the temperature around it will continue to drop far below what it normally is. Condensate naturally forms on the coil as a byproduct of normal operation, and this is what freezes into ice when the temperature drops low enough.
So, why is there not enough airflow? Two possible reasons. The first is that your air handler is broken. The air handler is the part of the air conditioner that actually blows air throughout the house while the system is operating. If the system doesn’t seem to be blowing any air at all, this is probably the reason why. There’s not much that you can do about this yourself, other than to schedule preventive maintenance on a regular basis to make sure that the system stays in good shape.
The other possible reason why there isn’t enough air moving over the coil is that the air filter is clogged. The air filter in the system should be changed every three months or so while the system is in heavy use. So, basically once at the beginning of the summer and once at the end. If this doesn’t happen, then the filter can clog and block most of the air in the ducts from making it into the air conditioner. This is something you can do something to prevent. Just make sure that you change the filter at least once every few months.
Why This Matters
So, why does it matter that your air conditioner is iced over anyway? Because, for one thing, your system won’t be able to properly cool the home while the coil is covered in ice. For another, the ice can eventually spread down the refrigerant line to other parts of the system and cause the entire air conditioner to break down. If you want to prevent that from happening, you should call a technician as soon as you notice ice on your system.