How Do I Keep My Air Conditioner From Freezing Up? 4 Effective Tips

Here are a few of the significant factors that cause your air conditioner to freeze up:

• Issues with the fan’s speed

If the conditioner system’s built-in fan is moving too slowly, then the hot or humid air doesn’t flow quickly enough across the evaporator coil. As this airflow decreases, the evaporator coils cool, eventually freezing up. When this happens, the ice inside the coils clogs up the drain hole, leading to the entire unit malfunctioning.

A completely blocked off drainage hole could also cause a flood when the water inside the unit’s drain pan leaks and bubbles over, hitting the integrated blower motor and soaking the surrounding floor of your living room or bedroom.

• Problems with the conditioner’s drainage system

Your air conditioning unit may be experiencing issues with its drainage system, which can cause the evaporator coils to freeze up. When hot air flows across these pipes, the cold coil extracts the heat. This heat becomes warm liquid in the condenser section of the unit.

The collected heat then drains out into your backyard or the drain pan at the base of the unit. If there’s a problem with the drainage system, this initially hot water sits stagnant in the pipes until it eventually cools and freezes up.

• Issues with the refrigerant levels

One of the most common causes for air conditioners freezing up is that of low refrigerant levels. The refrigerant is the substance that flows through your air conditioner’s coils in a low-pressure gaseous state. When hot air passes over these coils, the refrigerant absorbs the heat from this air and turns it into a liquid. It then cools and turns back into a low-pressure gas.

If there’s a leak in your air conditioning system and your refrigerant levels are lower than expected, this causes the refrigerant pressure to drop inside the evaporator coils. The heat levels inside the pipes then decrease as a result of the pressure drop, leading to the coils freezing up.

• Problems with the filter

Another common source of air conditioners freezing up is using a poor-quality filter. If your unit’s filter is poorly designed or unclean, it will likely become clogged up with dust, dander, and other bits of dirt that block the initial airflow into the conditioning system.

When this airflow decreases, there’s less warm air moving across the cold evaporator coil, causing the pipes to freeze in certain places. Once some sections of the coil freeze up, the unit’s integrated compressor pump will become damaged. This type of damage could mean you have to replace the entire AC system.