If you live in an area with hot summers, you need your AC unit in tip-top shape.

Ironically, when it’s hot out is when your air conditioning unit is at its most vulnerable. In severe cases, it can even freeze, leaving you and your house baking in the brutal summer heat. Thankfully, this scenario can be avoided with a little bit of extra care.

Today, we’re going to tell you what to do when your AC unit freezes up so that you don’t have to pay for huge repairs down the line. With your AC, you don’t want to leave these problems too long, or they’ll get worse and worse.

Why Is Your AC Unit Freezing?

There are a few common reasons why this might happen:

  • You might be having airflow problems that are keeping the warm air from ensuring that the temperature of the condensation stays low. This could be the result of an old air filter.
  • It could be that the unit is leaking refrigerant, which will prevent the unit from absorbing heat, causing the coil to freeze.
  • If your condensate line is blocked, the condensation from the AC unit will build up and clog. Once there’s enough water, it’s susceptible to freezing.

If it’s not one of these things or if you can’t tell, it’s best to call your local HVAC company to discuss what the problem might be.

What to Do When Your AC Unit Freezes Up

Before you call in the pros to give you a hand, you might want to try a few things to save yourself the cost of repair. We get a lot of calls to repair completely fixable and preventable problems, so try this first and see if you can’t fix it yourself:

  • Turn the unit off, soak up the water, and clean off any water damage that you can see.
  • Wait a while for the frozen parts of the unit to thaw, then continue to soak up the moisture with an absorbant cloth. Never chip the ice off because you can severely damage your AC unit.
  • Once you’ve gotten rid of the ice, try running the fan to get air flowing through the unit. After that, take a look at the air filters to see if they need replacing.

If this doesn’t work and the unit freezes after you run it again, it’s likely a sign of a larger problem that will need professional attention. There are so many moving parts in an AC unit that it’s too risky for an untrained eye to try and diagnose what’s gone wrong.

Keeping Your AC in Great Shape

Now that you know what to do when your AC unit freezes up, you can give it a try and contact us if there are ongoing problems. At Sewell Electric, we specialize in HVAC repairs, maintenance, replacement, and installation. If you’ve got AC problems, we’ll have a solution.

There’s nothing worse than going through a hot Tennessee summer without AC. Keep yours in great shape and make any repairs promptly before summer really starts heating up.