Shannan mentioned yesterday evening that the A/C doesn't seem to be keeping up with the heat we've been having as it seems to be constantly running and the temp in the house is 77 when she had it set for 68.  We have a large Trane A/C that is only 3 yrs old.  Went downstairs to a good sized puddle.  Small bit of ice and some frost on the ductwork above the furnace where the coil is.  Water seeping out of the ductwork and running to the floor.  Air filter was pretty dirty so I changed it.  Would the restricted airflow from a dirty filter be enough to cause the frosting up?  I turned off the A/C and turned on the fan at 3:30 AM hoping to defrost and dry out.  Haven't turned it back on yet but will want to soon I'm sure.  Any ideas, suggestions or similar experiences?

The air filter could contribute but is there water running out of the drain hose from the base of the condensor unit ? Sounds like that could be plugged. Also, are all the return vents un-obstructed in the entire house ? The air needs to get back to the return to keep flow. I leave my fan in the manual "on" position at the T-stat to enhance circulation.

Pull the front panel off the furnace unit and check for dust buildup on the blower wheel. That reduces the amount of air that passes through the evaporator inside. Both the heat and cooling use the same squirrel cage fan to cycle air through the house, they get plugged up with dust. Its also very possible the coil is plugged up with pet hair and dust when prevents the airflow going across it and prevents the refrigerant from doing its job in the coil which causes frost to build up.

Your getting water all over the floor is likely because the drain hose and/or the drain pan underneath the coil to catch the condensate is plugged, im not the one that can help on how to clear out the pan, ive never done that before, but I know where it typically plugs up, ive cleaned hoses before though. Its not all that different then the condensate drain in a car that has a hose that runs underneath the car from the inside to get rid of the condensate from the AC. There typically should be a hose that runs to a floor drain to let the condensate out. The hose can get plugged up too.

Outside condenser unit...Make sure your condenser outside is free of cottonseed (looks like spiderwebs with silky texture all over) and grass clippings from the lawn mower arent stuck to the outside fins of the unit. You can take the top off the outside unit and use a garden hose to spray from the inside out to get rid of all the debris if its built up on the fins.

And... it's just plain HOT today!  Could set a record in the TC by reaching 100! 

This Buick just continues to amaze me. Two and a half hours in a parade on blacktop this morning with temps approaching 100*, my foot on the brake the whole time and it just keep purring along.

However I feel like I’m well done.

There is a car show in Eagan today at 1300.

takes more air to run ac then heat. coil could be plug air does have to blow through it. filter is new you say. is it a one inch that is full of air gaps, then i would bet coil plugged. i have seen those things where it so plugged it looks like plywood. lack of air flow or low refrigerant will turn your coil into block of ice which when it melts won't run down the hose it will drop down through furnace. don't lose refrigerant by design so that should mean leak or never charged right in the first place. i think all our service guys worked today even though it was a holiday. the biggest misgiving about hvac work is people think you work in cool places. i am soaked to the bone by 8:30 am and don't see air cond till i drive home at night. but i'm a tin bender so i sit if that nice truck with that roof that lets light in and also makes it 10 degrees hotter than outside. before back to the fifties where i took 1 vacation day i had off 2 days in three weeks. no complaining the money is great but i sure am getting tired. been going through three headbands a day trying to stop the water from running into my glasses. i didn't work today ut did say i would work the weekend. the other day i had two furnaces and two airs to put in at a side by side duplex one day of coarse on the east side of st paul. knocked on the door of left apt and the lady said ac is around back. we walked back there next thing i know the biggest pitbull i ever saw was running me down he ran out of chain about a foot away.

Have Service Plus through Centerpoint.  Called at noon and a service guy was here by 1:30.  Pleasantly surprised as I was told the tech would be there between noon and 8.  Glad today was an option!  I think Sunday was their next opening.   Hopefully things will be ok.  Didn't detect any refigerant leaks, cleaned the compressor housing outside and I had already replaced the filter inside.  Hoping it was just an airflow issue.  If not I need to call the installer and see if it is still under warranty.  Should be as it is a few days under 3 yrs old.  It's a Carrier not a Trane as I stated previously. 

Did he pull the plenum panel like Chris said to check for obstruction of the coil and plugging of the drain pan/hose ?

He should've also hooked up the gauges and read the pressures to determine low refrigerant.

Is it working better now ? Too damn hot to be without A/C....

Yes seems to be working better now.  Glad to have it working today!

Dont feel bad. I picked up two window ac units yesterday to replace to worn out 30 plus units that were original to our building. Little did I know that window units are not the same size as the wall units we actually do have. I figured there would be compatibility here somehow, no dang way in hell. Me, her and 2 other friends of ours spend tuesday night (still hot as hell) remove to heavy ass wall units out of the walls and put two window units in thier place. They both look trashy and horrible in the spots the other units came out of, you can see light outside around them and they are loose as hell. Just looking at them is just plain ghetto as well. No way after the hours we put in and the heavy lifting we had to endure, will these 2 units work. Plus, the new units run on 110V, the originals were 210V.

So it looks like once this heat wave is over, I will be pulling both units out of the walls and bringing them back. Michele and the other two think its just fine. But there is no way these will work long term, no way they will keep water from storms out or cold air out in the winter. We are going to need to get the proper wall unit AC in order to fix this right. Unfortuneatly, wall unit AC's are 500 bucks a shot, we are about at that with the pair of them.

So either we re-landscape and insulate the inside wall and fit these new ones in with sheetrock and blend them so they look good. Or I bring them both back to Costco and Target and look into spending big bucks for the right size units.

Frank, do you have any ideas on who sells wall unit AC's for a decent price? One of the neighbor friends of ours that helped us tuesday night with this project paid big bucks at Warner Stellian for a wall unit to the tune of 800 dollars including a 3 year replacement plan.

how many warner stellans are there? my old boss works for them selling stuff real little guy named joe mccabe.

I guess there are several locations, ive personally never been there before myself.

frank wrote:

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had a 15 year service guy fall on the floor in the office he was puking all over. hope this heat spell is over soon it was a rough one.

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 It was hot as hell today at 6PM, walk outside at 10PM and its as if it was a completely different day.