Home & Garden

Central Air Conditioner iced up - Repair or replace?

  • Last Updated:
  • Jul 14th, 2015 10:15 am
Tags:
None
Sr. Member
Nov 17, 2014
807 posts
281 upvotes

Central Air Conditioner iced up - Repair or replace?

My 15 year old 3.5 tons air conditioner has ice on the suction pipe to the compressor outside the house. The outside ice only came up after about 6 hours of running the AC, that necessitates me to turn the AC off.

At first I thought that the cause is the air flow problem, and I have cleaned with a spray cleaner from Lowes to outside condenser coils and the top of the inside evaporator coils, and replaced my electrostatic air filter with a cheap air filter for air to go through easily. The only place that I did not clean is the bottom of the inside evaporator coils as I just learned how to open the panel to get to the bottom part. Today, the ice has come back on the outside suction pipe outside.

So, other than cleaning the bottom part of the evaporator coils to be sure that is not the cause, the ice up problem is likely caused by low freon refrigerant because of leaks in the AC system.

An AC company here has told me that it would cost me $80 for them to come to my house plus $30/lb of freon to charge up my AC.

I am not sure if spending a couple of hundred dollars to charge up my AC is the right solution, as I may need another charge up next year. The alternatives may be to find the leaks, or to replace the evaporator coils (a few hundred dollars), or to replace the whole AC unit (a few thousand dollars). I would assume that repairing the leaks or replacing the evaporator coils would extend the AC life for another 5 to 10 years?

Any suggestions? Thanks.
7 replies
Deal Fanatic
Jan 5, 2003
5068 posts
5010 upvotes
Toronto
Beefeater wrote: So, other than cleaning the bottom part of the evaporator coils to be sure that is not the cause, the ice up problem is likely caused by low freon refrigerant because of leaks in the AC system.

An AC company here has told me that it would cost me $80 for them to come to my house plus $30/lb of freon to charge up my AC.

I am not sure if spending a couple of hundred dollars to charge up my AC is the right solution, as I may need another charge up next year. The alternatives may be to find the leaks, or to replace the evaporator coils (a few hundred dollars), or to replace the whole AC unit (a few thousand dollars). I would assume that repairing the leaks or replacing the evaporator coils would extend the AC life for another 5 to 10 years?

Any suggestions? Thanks.
It's actually illegal to "top up" refriderant without fixing the leak because it's harmful to the environment. Plus, why do you think it'll last you a year? It might just last you a couple of weeks at most. Even if they check the pressure immediately after recharging the refriderant, it could take a couple of weeks to months for the pressure to drop. There's no way of knowing until you find the leak. You'll looking at several hundred to find the leak, then much more to recharge the refriderant (you can look on your A/C to find out how much refridgerant it needs), and there's still a good chance the compressor or another part might break soon.

It's time to look at a new A/C. Check for rebates from your local electricity provider for replacing old A/Cs with new ones (usually you need a certain minimum SEER rating).
Member
Feb 3, 2011
302 posts
66 upvotes
Markham
Fix the leak, make sure it's serviced every year before you turn it on, and yes, you'll be ok for 5-10 years. We had the same issue.

Also, freon is going to be more hard to find as they're phasing AC units away from it. So you may find after a year or two of fill ups, that you can't get anymore.
Member
Mar 15, 2008
269 posts
33 upvotes
I ressurected this thread because I have a similar problem. I powered my AC on yesterday, and the tubes of AC had frost of them and started icing up after a few hours. Afterwards, the cold airflow stopped blowing inside my house.

I'm trying to figure out if I should simply replace the central AC or get it fixed. My AC unit is 14 years old and is 8 SEER. The newer AC units are much more efficient. How much does it cost to fix a leak? Would I be better off investing the repair dollars into a new AC?
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Nov 13, 2005
5897 posts
301 upvotes
GTA
from my understanding is that a frozen coil or line is cause by 1 of 2 things. Your "A" coil inside your furance has froze due to poor air circulation. If this is the case shut the furnace off for a few ours to let the ice melt, make sure the filter is clean and when you start up the furnace let it run without the filter to make sure that the hot air in the return airduct is reaching the "A" coil. The 2nd issue could mean that you are low on freon at which point you have a leak somewhere.
Banned
User avatar
Sep 1, 2012
1783 posts
78 upvotes
without changing filter this might caused the iced built up
Member
Mar 15, 2008
269 posts
33 upvotes
noNuser wrote: without changing filter this might caused the iced built up
I only know of one filter on the furnace. I've already checked and replaced it. It is clean.
Jr. Member
Jul 9, 2015
117 posts
12 upvotes
Ottawa, ON
We has similar issue with a 14 year old Lennox 8 seer 2 ton ac. Were told we have a leak and need to repair leak with dye search and Freon top-up at $420+tx (not sure labour on top?) but recommended to replace AC.

Would be interested to hear from other Ottawa area member's recent experience with AC installer for Lennox, Trane, Carrier or American Standard.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)