Outside unit iced over, what should I do?

5 years ago

Woke up 4:00am yesterday to discover the furnace breaker has been turned off all summer. Thermostat was calling for heat, but only fan was running. It was 57° inside and 28° outside. Flipped the breaker and it took all day for the heat to catch up (2000 sq ft house). At 5:00pm there is ice on the outside unit. Fan is running fine, but it had been running all day and ice had started to form. Should we turn off the heat at this point to protect the outside unit from potential damage or continue to let it run? It’s supposed to be 30° tonight again.

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Comments (4)

mtvhike
5 years ago
Where are you and what kind of heating system do you have?
BT
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I assume you have a heatpump, if NOT outside unit should not be running.

If it is a heatpump, switch your system into emergency heat or turn it off completely to let the ice melt. It is low on refrigerant, or reversing valve stuck. IF you have nothing better to do a hair drier can melt this ice, do not touch the fins, do not bend the fins.. Just apply a hair dryer against ice. Turn it off and let the ice melt.

If this is HP -> call HVAC guy, but not until all ice melted. It is low on refrigerant, or reversing valve stuck.
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dadoes
5 years ago
Assuming the system is a heat pump, it's not unusual for ice to accumulate on the outdoor coils (which operates as a cooling coil during heat mode). It should melt off at the next defrost cycle. Some units have a timed defrost (triggers after a specific elapsed runtime, such as every 30, 60, or 90 mins, whatever is the setting). Others have a demand defrost method which triggers when needed via temp sensors on the coil (to avoid unnecessary defrost cycles via fixed time periods).

Example of mine before a defrost.
HU-633640361
Original Author
5 years ago
It is a heat pump and I’m in North Carolina. Switched to emergency last night and I believe there is a problem with the heat strips. The system does have a defrost because it’s been cutting off periodically throughout the day. It seems the system cant keep up at night. This is a brand new Goodman system installed in May.