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Q: How to Determine the Airflow? ( Answered,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: How to Determine the Airflow?
Category: Family and Home > Home
Asked by: jhines45-ga
List Price: $10.00
Posted: 12 Jun 2003 19:52 PDT
Expires: 12 Jul 2003 19:52 PDT
Question ID: 216739
Here is our delima with our Central Airconditiong. The centrail air
unit seems to freeze up after about 2-3 hours of running time. Both
outside and inside around some of the lines. I was told to replace my
filter. As I pulled the cover off and took out the old one I did not
remember which way I took it out. So my question is this. Can the
airflow with the filter installed cause the centrail air unit to
freeze up? And also would that cause the unit outside and inside to
freeze up? And what I mean by freeze up the outside of the pipes have
a thick coat of soft ice around them. The centrail ac is a Carrier
Brand Model 38GTxxxxxx not sure of the rest?

Any help would be appreciated? Thanks
Answer  
Subject: Re: How to Determine the Airflow?
Answered By: tutuzdad-ga on 12 Jun 2003 21:23 PDT
 
Dear jhines45-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.

Alright…been there – done that; here’s the deal. Obviously I can’t see
your air unit so I can’t diagnose it for you personally, but one of
these scenarios is most likely your problem. It doesn't really matter
what brand it is as this symptom is a common indicator of a number of
things. I’ll touch on all of them just to make sure that you or your
repairman don’t overlook any of them:

This may not be an issue but its good to check anyway while you’re at
it: If your air unit is running but not blowing cold air, find the
condenser. You’ll see one or two (depending on your unit) copper tubes
or “coils” coming out of it. Carefully reach in there and touch the
copper tube (the larger one if there are two). If the surface of the
tube is warm two things are possible (1) your unit is low on freon
(refrigerant) and it needs to be recharged. In many areas, especially
metropolitan areas, only a licensed repairman can charge an air unit
with freon. Check you local building codes office about this. You
might be able to buy a kit in your area and do it yourself. A word of
caution here – if you’ve never done it before, be careful. You can
really hurt yourself with compressed freon and you can also blow your
coils out if you don’t do it correctly. (2) Your compressor is shot
and needs repair or replacement. Suggested alternative: pray that it’s
just a freon problem.

If the line is frozen or iced over, your problem is most likely, as
you suggested, an internal (in the house or inside the unit) airflow
problem. You may have a clogged filter or your filter may be old and
in need of replacement. If you think you have your filter on backward
and you can’t tell which side goes “down”, buy a new one. If you’ve
had it so long that you can no longer read the directions on it, its
time for it to go. If you forgot how to put the filter back so you
just didn’t do it – get another one and do it. If you don’t you’ll be
buying a new air unit much sooner that you really hoped to. If you
clean and/or replace your filters and the situation does not improve,
go to every room in your hose and make sure that all your registers
(those little vent ducts in your floor or ceiling in every room) are
opened wide and that nothing is covering them (furniture, rugs, toys,
the dog, whatever). Closed/partially closed registers can ruin your
air unit. You’ll actually cool rooms much efficiently and keep them
cool (causing less stress on your air unit) if they are all open than
you will if you close them all except the ones in the room you are
wanting to rapidly cool.

However, a low freon charge can ALSO cause lines to freeze up just as
you described since the unit must work overtime to cool the home. Shut
your air unit completely off (go swimming or ice skating or something
cool like that while its thawing). Allow the unit “and the lines” to
COMPLETELY THAW before turning it back on. When it’s thawed out, turn
the little monster back on at a reasonable setting and see if there is
better performance. If it freezes up again in a few hours, you’ve
probably got a freon issue. Call the guy if you have to and have him
come out and charge it up for you.

Low freon is relatively easy to fix in comparison to other more
expensive problems, but be advised that you may also have a leak in
your coil or A-frame that’s causing the freon to be low.  While it’s
not unusual for air units to, for lack of a better term, “consume” a
little freon over time, it definitely be indicative of a leak in your
coil or somewhere if your unit is practically or completely empty.
Have the repairman check for that when he comes out.

Rip-Off Note: Act like you know all about air units but you just don’t
have the time to check it yourself. He may think twice about trying to
run some expensive game on you like charging you an expensive fee for
fixing a leak that doesn’t really exist if he thinks you know already
the deal. It always works for me.

Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga


INFORMATION SOURCES

WARMAIR.NET
http://www.warmair.net/html/troubleshooting.htm

HANDYMAN USA
http://www.handymanusa.com/questions/airconditioningq.html

IMPROVENET
http://www.improvenet.com/adviceandresources/warmair/troubleshoot.html


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

“CENTRAL AIR” LINES FREEZE

“CENTRAL AIR” “FREEZE UP”

“CENTRAL AIR” “FREEZES UP”
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