What would make a brand new (3 months old) central Air Conditioning unit freeze up?

Question

It did it last week and they came out and added freon (however you spell it) and it made it cooler than it ever was and now nothing. Not even semi cool air. I live in Florida and am now about to have a heat stroke.

It is a fairly large unit. My house is 3000 square feet.

Thanks for all the help. The A/C man was here today.........I need a new air handler and coil. I believe that is what he said...anyway $1800 is what it is going to cost ...........is that normal?

Answer 1

It appears the contractor who installed the unit was not very competent. If they came out already and had to add Freon (Freon is a brand name like Kleenex, proper term is refrigerant) it sounds like they never fixed the leak, you have a pretty good case for a warranty claim.

If I was you I would ask why they had to come out and add refrigerant once already?

Contrary to what appears to be popular belief on Yahoo answers, not all frozen evaps are caused by low refrigerant or a bad compressor. If the compressor has unloaders in it and they dont function properly then that could be a possibility but 99% of residential compressors DO NOT have unloaders.

The company that installed it should have given you atleast a 1 year Warranty so make them fix it.

Answer 2

You should check the circuit breakers first. There are two. One for the air handler (inside unit) and the other for the comdensor (outside unit) . Try flipping them OFF then back to ON.

Sounds like you have a leak. You really should get a competant AC contractor to come out and check the system.

Freezing up is usually a symptom of not having enough freon in the system. If you lose more freon, the unit will usually detect the condition and shut itself down.

Answer 3

If it was almost new when it the coil first froze up, then it probably is too large for the space it's cooling. When the service people added the freon, they probably overcharged the system and this would cause it to not cool at all. You need to talk with the company you bought the unit from and ask them what size air conditioner is recommended for a living unit with the square footage yours has. And you need to talk with whoever sent the service people to get something done about their incorrect servicing of the device.

Answer 4

Causes of freezing. Lack of freon due to leak, dusty aircon filters and blocked caperlliary line. Call a qualified a/c maintenance technician to sort out this problem or call the service center of that partiuclar brand of your a/c and check with them, whether if it is still covered with warranty.

Answer 5

always look at the obvious,if they added freon before and it worked,it still has a leak.insist that the tech locate the leak,by not doing so,they are in violation of the federal law concerning CFC emissions to the atmosphere.There is a 1-800 number in your owner's manual,call it and report the contractor to the manufacturer of the system.Good Luck.

Answer 6

If it needs a new air handler, as you say, it should be covered under the warranty, since it's only 3 months old

Answer 7

I'm not sure about central air but the window ones will freeze up from over use, I've just turned it to heat or warmest setting and it will thaw fast and then you can use it again.

Answer 8

Hummm.u are saying abt central air conditioning system so is it ducted split units or decorative split unit or cabinet type?whatever it is,if they added referigent again so it means that there is some leakage or now it may have compressor problem or its out door unit not working properly. there may be blockage in liquid or suction line due to improper installation of unit.so it is better u call them again to check unit properly.
may be unit capacity will be less as per ur room size that is why there is no cooling effect.u can calculate urself wht capacity of unit u need.ist calculate area of ur room in feet square.if ur room is a living room thn multiply area by factor of 3.5 or if it is ur bed room thn multiply by 2.5 and u will get CFM(cubic feet per minute air required) thn u can convert it into tons.relation is 1 ton=400 cfm and u will get wht ton of unit u needed.ok?

STILL U DIDNOT MENTION THAT WHT TYPE OF UNIT IS IT?IS IT DUCTED OR DECORATIVE?ARE U USING ONE UNIT FOR UR WHOLE HOUSE?IF U ARE USING ONE UNIT FOR A HOUSE OF 3000 SQU FEET THN IT IS NOT GOOD IDEA.HOW U WILL CONTROL COOLING IN INDIVIDUAL ROOMS?ARE U USING vavs FOR THT?PLEASE MENTION UNIT TYPE.IS IT DECORATIVE WALL MOUNTED SPLIT UINT OR DUCTED SPLIT UNIT AND U PLACE IT ABOVE FALSE CEILING.OK?????

Answer 9

A leak possibly....
It could be the cooloing fan or coils are blocked.
Or it was put on the sunny side of the building.
There could be some metering valve problem too.

Answer 10

It has a off cycle defrost that means the unit has to turn off long enough to melt the coils. Your settings are to low bring them up to about 75 degrees and when it is stable you can lower to 70 degrees but no lower. Leave the fan only and thaw the coils completely off.