{"id":2599,"date":"2021-07-26T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/?p=2599"},"modified":"2021-07-23T13:13:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T17:13:03","slug":"what-causes-ice-form-on-acs-evaporator-coil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/what-causes-ice-form-on-acs-evaporator-coil\/","title":{"rendered":"What Causes Ice to Form on an AC\u2019s Evaporator Coil?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A mistake that homeowners often make about the way their air conditioning systems work is to assume that ice appearing along the indoor evaporator coil is normal, just a sign the AC is working extremely<\/em> well at cooling down the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that ice should never appear on any part of an air conditioner. When ice appears along the evaporator coil, it means something is interfering with the standard way the air conditioner operates. The ice creates a major problem on its own, but the source of the ice forming may be an even worse problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Basic Cause of Ice Forming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are several underlying causes of ice appearing on an AC\u2019s evaporator coil which we\u2019ll get to, but all create the same issue: for some reason, the evaporator coil loses its ability to absorb heat and raise the temperature of the cold refrigerant moving through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the refrigerant in the coil doesn\u2019t warm up past freezing, which is what normally happens in a cooling cycle, its low temperature will cause moisture along the coil to freeze. Moisture naturally forms along the coil when the AC is operating, so there\u2019s always some amount of water to freeze if the coil is too cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This now begins a snowball-down-the-mountain effect. The ice further restricts the coil from absorbing heat, causing more ice to grow. If ice coats the entire coil, the AC won\u2019t be able to provide any cooling at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sources of the Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now that you understand the basic cause of ice forming, we can look at the reasons the coil may lose heat absorption:<\/p>\n\n\n\n