I'm in no way a DIY but figured this would be the best place to ask. Last night the A/C line froze (ice and everything on it). The question is: is this normal? Or does something trigger this? Or am I doomed to get a new A/C unit? Right now it's turned off while we wait for the line to unfreeze.

Mods: feel free to move this if there's a more suitable place for it.

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http://twitter.com/davidiq

Don't think there are any AC experts in this forum David, as not many people have Air conditioning over here. We have the opposite problem to you in that it is cold over here.

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DIY | Donnas dream house

oops. Yeah...it's scorching hot here especially now in the summer. Sorry bout that Chez.

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http://twitter.com/davidiq

It's summer here as well, but it's not at all warm

At least you get great weather

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DIY | Donnas dream house

Hi DavidIQ and to UHM

Two possible problems.

a) don't listen to Chez.

b) The unit has lost its charge and the refrigerant needs topping up.

c) The pipes are un-lagged

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Thanks for the welcome...even if it's 2 years late

I think you may have hit it on the nail with c. I called my wife earlier and she mentioned something about that. It's been raining pretty hard the last few days and the unit is a tad old so it may need to get redone after the recent pounding.

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I was jesting about the welcome David

B) is the most likely

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I'd go with b as well but it was recharged just last year unless that's something that needs to be done yearly :

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A charge should last for years unless there's a leak.

Perhaps it is the lagging then, it will be one or the other or even both.

Is the unit freezing up as well, a sure sign of refrigerant loss, or just the pipes.

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Not really sure just yet. All I saw was the pipes frozen but didn't check the rest of the unit. If it should be obvious then no...the unit wasn't frozen. Water beating on it plus cool lines without the lagging would cause the ice buildup me thinks. ...and it's pouring again!

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Not the water, but atmosphere if the lagging is broken, then repair that first.

Get a good one and seal the edges, in this country we use "Armaflex", but don't know if its available to you

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Just thought I'd drop back into this topic I started eons ago. A/C line started freezing again about 4 months ago so we had it re-charged. Then the same thing happened and the A/C guy (a close friend of ours) came to charge it again but let us know that when he had looked at the unit in the attic that he thought the radiator looked a bit old and would need replacing. Turns out that the outside unit is actually newer than the unit in the attic.

So the entire system is getting changed out next Friday. Hopefully it'll save us in energy bills as well since the current one seems to be straining a lot lately to keep the house cool in these summer months.

You should be so lucky.

Since I retired we've had the two wettest summers on record

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