Much like winter, freezing temperatures come with a lot of problems. Outlined below are the most common issues that occur with frozen AC lines during the winter season. Contact your local air conditioning company for repairs.
Now, why does your air conditioner line freeze up?
Well, it’s pretty simple: heat is moving through an exposed line. Since heat is always trying to flow from an area of high concentration to low concentration, your line is constantly taking in the high-temperature air and releasing it into your home.
When you turn on your air conditioning system during the winter months, the air outside is significantly colder than inside—so this whole process continues and results in significant repairs.
As you can imagine, this cycle of constantly moving heat through the line causes some issues. It’s like looping a bathtub: eventually, there is no water left inside (heat), and all that’s left is to dry (chill) out the tub after it has been emptied.
By the time your HVAC air conditioner has re-released all of its heat, it’s cold outside. Since there isn’t another “tub” nearby to pull heat, the line starts pulling heat from itself—turning into a looped ice bath.
How Does This Relate to Your Home HVAC System?
Since the AC Line is kept outside of your home, it’s exposed to a lot more cold air. This cold air freezes the water inside the line and clogs up its flow.
When this happens, you’ll likely notice that your air conditioner isn’t cooling as well as it used to. This is because the line is acting like a clogged showerhead, where water isn’t flowing through properly anymore.
To fix frozen AC lines, you need to remove all of the ice from the line. There are two ways to go about this: either by hand or a unique tool designed for unfreezing lines. Unfortunately, if you use the hand method, it’s going to take a while.
Using this unique tool is easy. You open up your HVAC panel in your home, locate the AC Line in question, and plug in the tool. After about 30 seconds, all of the ice melts, and you can go on living your life.
Possible Reasons for Frozen AC Lines
- The temperature outside is significantly colder than inside your home or office.
- Your AC line wasn’t insulated adequately before it was placed underneath your home and has been directly exposed to the cold air throughout the winter.
- The AC line leaks, allowing water to flow freely out of the line.
- Freezing as soon as it’s exposed to the air temperature.
- Your home HVAC system is old or cheap.
- Your AC line was hooked up to a source of ice, such as an air conditioner ice machine—which produces small amounts of ice throughout the year, causing your line to clog.
- You’ve been running your HVAC system without any filters throughout the winter to reduce expense.
Fortunately, fixing frozen AC Lines is easy. Of course, if you’re reading this article, you probably already know about your issue—so congratulations on avoiding the potential dangers of frozen AC Lines. If not, check out the below section.
Freeze Prevention Tips
After you’re done using your AC, please turn off your home HVAC system and switch it from cooling to heating mode. While turning off the AC sounds simple enough, many people don’t realize that their air conditioner is still on even though they aren’t in the room anymore.
Turn off your AC at night or when you’re out during the day. This should prevent ice from accumulating and clogging up your AC line. Ensure to properly insulate any exposed AC Lines outside of your home, especially around the winter months.
If you run an air conditioner ice machine, it is better that you place it near your AC Line and remove the water after each day’s use. If you have a home HVAC system that’s old or cheap, look into replacing it with a modern model.
You might want to take a look at your home HVAC filters as well if they haven’t been changed for the season yet, now would be a great time to do so. To avoid these issues, you should insulate your AC line before winter hits.
This will prevent any heat from escaping through the line and result in improved air conditioner efficiency. Your air conditioning company experts will analyze your filters and suggest appropriate replacements or repairs.
Possible Reasons for Refrigerant Leaks in
Poor insulation around the line is a common reason. Since heat always tries to escape an area of high concentration, your insulated lines should not be exposed to the elements. The original installation used might have been of poor-quality materials (such as plastic).
This material is significantly less effective than metals such as copper and aluminum. Be sure to ask the air conditioning company experts about the quality of materials used. The line is exposed to sharp rocks or other debris, which puncture holes in it over time. This exposes water inside the line to cold temperatures, causing it to freeze and clog up the refrigerant flow.
In all these cases, you’ll likely notice that your AC isn’t cooling adequately. If you have any of these issues, give the professionals a call to help fix your unit.
Call an HVAC Company
If you notice that your AC is cooling less than usual or isn’t working at all, you may have a frozen line if your unit is leaking water indoors. When the weather turns cold outside, you should always insulate any exposed lines before winter comes around.
Contact your local HVAC company if you notice any strange odors, hear gurgling noises coming from the AC unit, or smell something like burning inside your home (air conditioner is most likely leaking refrigerant).
You should call your AC contractor when you notice an increase of dust indoors (AC is likely leaking refrigerant, which brings in dust and debris). Professionals from a trusted air conditioning company can help restore your system to its full performance.
