Why do air conditioners freeze up

An air conditioner may freeze up due to a number of reasons and they are as follows:

1. The most common reason for an air conditioner to freeze up is refrigerant deficiency. Lack of sufficient Freon in the air conditioning system may result from a leak or simply because the system is not refilled in time. Insufficient refrigerant levels can cause the cooling coil to become colder than expected or desired. If you are experiencing this problem, then you would need to call up the company’s service centre and book for a servicing to fill up the cooling tank and repair any leaks that might be present.

2. Inadequate airflow can also be a reason; what happens is that the cold coil in your AC keeps getting colder and colder due to lack of enough warm air to act upon, until the cooling coil becomes so cold that it actually freezes the water prior to drainage. Controlling the fan speed is very important as the fan needs to run fast enough to circulate the air properly. Improper fan speed causes your AC to freeze up, so turn up the fan to maximum speed if you see signs of that. This could also be the result of the filter in your air conditioner being jammed up due to accumulation of dust on it. Clean the filter regularly and keep the air flow sufficient near the open registers to avoid such problems.

3. Proper drainage is essential for an air conditioner to function properly because the water that is formed within the AC, must be taken out of the air conditioning system, otherwise the cooling coil will just start to ice over the accumulating water after awhile. Make sure that the installed drainage system is working properly by contacting the manufacturer for a service check.

Whatever is the reason, know that using a frozen air conditioning machine will use up more energy than it should and thus it will increase your electricity bills. Also, it is detrimental to the machine’s compressor to use it while the air conditioner is in such poor condition and may end up costing you the costly compressor altogether.