A/C Froze over again... And i think i found mold inside the handler

[aphex]

So i lay down to go to bed and notice its hotter than usual. Turn on the fan, still hot. Go downstairs to find the A/C frozen over again (it used to do this ALL the time until they replaced the coils a year ago). Great.

As i'm flipping it to 'Fan on' and cooling 'off' to help defrost the unit, I notice a small white spot around the base below the filter (which is changed monthly). I pull back the foam on the bottom of the unit and find lots and lots of white spots that really look like mold to me. I assume that maybe since it kept freezing over and defrosting, the water kept dripping down over this spot.

Again, great.

So, what should be my next step? Its a 5 year old Goodman A/C that is a huge POS (builders model, installed when the place was built). They already replaced the coils a year ago as noted above and it worked fine until this past week.

 

[IEC]

You may not like this, but...

Replace the whole damn thing with a higher efficiency, better-built unit. No matter how much you repair or tweak a POS, it will remain a POS.

 

[Newbian]

Are you sure it's mold and not mouse poop?

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
You may not like this, but...

Replace the whole damn thing with a higher efficiency, better-built unit. No matter how much you repair or tweak a POS, it will remain a POS.

Well, in my POS a/c's defense, its efficiency rating is 100

Now, i suppose that rating should go down when you take into account the amount of time the POS needs to work overtime to make up for its POS-ityness.

Any chance with the economic downturn a new A/C might be found on the cheap?

 

[aphex]

On another note, while I was defrosting the A/C the unit shut off. Pulled off the bottom panel and found a ton of water in the water collection pan, enough so that it tripped the float switch and killed the whole unit. After emptying the pan once, resetting the system and turning it back on, it was filled up and tripped the float switch again within 10 minutes. Grrrr.

 

[JujuFish]

The real question here is, did a mouse pop out?

 

[rhino56]

why is it freezing up? not enough airflow? i have that problem with my cheap unit in my apt if i dont use a good filter that flows well.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: rhino56
why is it freezing up? not enough airflow? i have that problem with my cheap unit in my apt if i dont use a good filter that flows well.

We have a custom made filter for ours, its nearly brand new.

 

[George P Burdell]

Lysol-nuke your house from orbit.

 

[rhino56]

Originally posted by: aphex

Originally posted by: rhino56
why is it freezing up? not enough airflow? i have that problem with my cheap unit in my apt if i dont use a good filter that flows well.

We have a custom made filter for ours, its nearly brand new.

have you tried running it without the filter to see if it ices over?

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: aphex
On another note, while I was defrosting the A/C the unit shut off. Pulled off the bottom panel and found a ton of water in the water collection pan, enough so that it tripped the float switch and killed the whole unit. After emptying the pan once, resetting the system and turning it back on, it was filled up and tripped the float switch again within 10 minutes. Grrrr.

Is it normal for you to have to manually empty this pan? I've never seen one yet that wasn't plumbed to a drain. When the drain is too far away, they'll use a reservoir with a float switch and a pump. No pump?

Your icing could be caused by the water that can't get out, plugged filter as said, incorrect refrigerant charge, or improperly sized components.

Your next step is to get the people out that did the work to fix it.

Huge POS builders model that's 100% efficient? Okaaay.

 

[Squisher]

In the dream world in which I live I have a 20+ SEER unit combined with multi-speed furnace with a whole house dehumidifier and air cleaner. Also, all the duct work has been sealed with aeroseal.

EDIT: btw - clean the mold with concrobium. You can get it at Home Depot in the paint dept.

 

[Linflas]

Are you certain the system is fully charged? Whenever I have had problems with freezing at the A frame it has always been caused by low refrigerant.

 

[boomerang]

Hey Squisher, how much did the Aeroseal run you? How big is your house and who did the work. We're both in Michigan but I'm in North Oakland county so your contractor may not travel up my way. I think you're downriver somewhere.

You can PM if you want.

Oh wait - dream world? Yeah, there's nobody here that does the work.

 

[Tremulant]

The drain pan in my A/C was overflowing a few months back and we found that the drain pipe was about half full of solidified algae, so the water wasn't able to drain out. At the end of the pipe (on the side of the house), it looked clear and the water came out clear.
We thought it was good, but it kept overflowing so we had to cut the drain pipe near the unit. We were able to pull out strips of algae (it had the consistency of rubber) out of the pipe (it was pretty gross). We cleaned the pipe out as much as possible and left a tee joint in there so we could periodically pour bleach down the line to kill the algae.

It also seems that our A/C unit is missing the overflow pan, so when the primary drain pan is full, the water leaks into the intake instead of out through another drain pipe.

 

[Renob]

The drain pan in my A/C was overflowing a few months back and we found that the drain pipe was about half full of solidified algae

I put a few drops of bleach in my drain every few months to help with that, my AC installer gave me that tip.

Oh by the way just put in a full system in our house about 5 months ago and love it!

 

[Chryso]

Mold builds character.