Frozen Evaporator

don_185

I'm with Kal on this one.Get a heat gun or turn it off and return another day.

What good is it to leave a system on that has a psc motor and will limit out anyway.Same thing applys to furnaces as well.

Barrington White

Frozen Evaporator coil

Lets say you have a frozen indoor coil. To speed up the process of melting that coil would it help to disconnect power going to the condenser fan motor, or should you turn off the t-stat and turn the fan in the on position.

Eugene Silberstein 3

Melting Ice

If you are trying to nmelt a frozen evaporator coil, the compressor should be off, sot he condenser fan motor should be off as well.

It will definitely speed the process if you energize the indoor fan motor.

Also, check the drain line to be certain that the water will drain properly or you will have a very wet situation.

Jeff Lawrence_25

IF

and I repeat IF there's not much chance of damage to the surrounding areas, I have been known to fire up the gas furnace to supply additional heat to speed the defrost time.

Normally, I tell the customer what to look for and if there's ice at the evap or the suction line of the condensing unit, i tell them to turn the system OFF and out the fan switch to 'on' as opposed to 'auto.' That usually does the trick.

I'm sure the perfesser is quaking in his shoes after i mentioned turning on the gas furnace.....

Empire_2

Hi Jeff

Funny you said that. I remember a customer where one of MY guy's did exactly that,....Ended up with water falling to the blower housing, Shorting out the motor. Boy,...was I miffed....lol

Mike T.

Kal Row

\"pay-shents gwwaass-hoppah\" - haste makes waste...

if a chunk of ice is blocking your drain , heaven help you,
if you are in such a hurry - crawl in ther with a blowdrier and start at the drain - many freezing problems are airflow anyway so you might as well open it up and clean the coil for real - and vacum the blower at the same time, make sure it's evenly clean when you are done, ie run your finger along the well of each and every blade, as nothing kills a blower motor bearing faster than an unbalanced blower cage, the whole blower assembly should slide outward after removal of just two screws

Eugene Silberstein 3

I agree as well

It's always best to turn it off and come back. Unfortunately, this is not always acceptable.