Chances are your indoor unit s evaporator coil is frozen solid and cold liquid refrigerant is flowing to the outside unit through the refrigerant line which is why it s covered in ice.
Heat pump air handler frozen.
Your outside air conditioning refrigerant line is covered in ice which seems crazy in arizona heat.
During the cold winter months your heat pump s outside unit will sometimes be covered with a coating of frost on the sides or even light ice.
When faced with a frozen heat pump.
So what s the deal.
Standby for a small high school physics lesson.
It is possible to ice up the indoor coil however if the air conditioner is running in very cold.
Heat pump not heating.
Try to avoid using your air conditioner at night when the temperatures drop.
We don t need to go too in depth so bear with me but understanding this principle is the key to figuring out why your air conditioner is freezing up.
Change your air filter.
Diagnose your thermostat for any obvious problems.
What to do in the event of a frozen heat pump.
It is never normal to see ice during the summer anywhere on the inside or outside of a heat pump or a central air conditioner.
Of course in the summer the situation is reversed.
Heat pump frozen in winter.
The system extracts heat from the inside of the house and moves it outside.
Many times a clogged air filter is the reason behind frozen cooling coils.
Fixing an outdoor frozen heat pump can be as easy as setting the defrost cycle to run a little more frequently which did the trick for us.
The most important factor when dealing with a frozen pump is to act fast.
If the heat pump turns on when you want cool air but not for heat this is likely the cause.
In this scenario the air coils inside the interior air handler get very cold.
Immediately turn off your heat pump.
This includes the indoor unit outdoor unit and interconnecting line set.
If the coil gets too cold the condensation freezes causing your heat pump to freeze up in the summer.
Every so often the unit will go into defrost mode to remove that frost.
If it continues to attempt to operate it can seriously damage itself.
In the winter heat pump icing up is often perfectly normal.
As the name suggests the reversing valve allows the heat pump to work as both a heater and an air conditioner by reversing the direction of the refrigerant.
Troubleshooting a frozen air conditioning coil.
Your heat pump and air handler will not function very well when outside temperatures are below 60 degrees.
Sometimes the evaporator coil will freeze if the a c is running when it s cool outside.
Well your heat pump works to cool your home by absorbing heat with a cold refrigerant that runs through your evaporator coil.
The joule thomson effect is a principle in thermodynamics which states that if everything else is kept constant.
Heat pump or air conditioner iced up in summer.
As warm air hits the coil condensation builds up.
