How To Deal With Iced Over AC Coils

The evaporator coils in your AC unit are designed to handle a certain volume of air, and your fan is designed so that it pushes just the right amount of air over your coils. In some situations, such as when your air filter gets clogged, your AC unit can get starved for air. When this happens, you need to act quickly to correct the problem.

What Happens when Your AC Coils Don't Get enough Air?

The refrigerant in your coils extracts heat from the air flowing into your home. If too little air is flowing over your coils, they will extract so much heat that they cause the water vapor in the air to freeze. As layer after layer of vapor builds up on your coils, they can completely block of the flow of air through your coils This will prevent your AC unit from pumping any cooled air to your home. 

How to Clean the Ice off Your Coils

In order to restore the function of your evaporator coils, you need to remove the ice. On a hot day, you might be tempted to chip the ice off of your coils, but you should avoid this tendency. If you puncture your coils, you create a problem that can only be repaired by a properly trained HVAC technician. Thus, your first step should be putting down buckets and/or towels to collect the water dripping off of your coils, and if you feel like you have to rush the melting process, you can use a hairdryer to melt the ice on your coils.

Avoiding New Problems

The first thing you should do to prevent your coils from icing over again is replace you AC filter. If you do this, and they continue to ice over, your problem is likely a malfunctioning fan motor. If your fan does not working enough to push air over your coils, they will freeze no matter how clean your filter is. 

Not every problem with your AC unit has to be repaired by a properly trained HVAC technician. Thus, before you call a repair technician, you should see what you can do on your own. If you have iced over coils, you should, at the very least, be able to remove the ice coating your coils. It is also important to know your limits. Trying to replace a fan motor, for example, is a task better left to the professionals. 

For more information, contact a company like Pristine Air Conditioning Corp.