Hello all. Kind of a vague title, so here are some details.

Moved to a new place (built 1998, and I think it still has the original A/C unit). A/C unit has been working hard all summer. We keep it at 75, but it's not able to keep up in the GA heat (and its been a pretty mild summer for us). It routinely gets up to 79-81 degrees during the day in the house, peaking around 5-6pm. A/C just runs continuously. Had an A/C guy come out once and he said it was working fine (don't recall the temp split off the top of my head), but I struggle to believe that.

Yesterday was particularly bad. Woke up at 6 AM this morning and the house was still at 77 degrees (from 81 the night before) and the A/C still powering away (and barely any airflow inside). Went outside and saw ice on the hose running from the unit into the house with a pretty thick (1/3-1/2") coating of ice on it. I'm going to have the girlfriend turn off the AC before she leaves the house this morning to let it defrost.

To me it seems like 2 separate problems. The ice can form from a few problems, one of the common ones being poor air flow. But it's important to note that the A/C has sucked since we moved in, and even when the A/C doesn't have to work for 12 hours straight (and theoretically gets a chance to defrost), it still does a piss poor job cooling the house. There's no excuse, IMO, for a unit to not be able to cool a 1500 sq ft house to 75 so badly that it struggles to keep it below 80.

Unfortunately we rent said house, and have a stingy land lord. So any DIY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

If it saves time...

I've already changed out the air filter, which is a higher end 3M filter to deal with ultra-fine particles (may be too dense for unit? Just tossing out ideas). I also have plans in the next day or two to clean the condenser coils on the AC unit. They're not awful, but they're not good either. Very corroded-looking. Only other ideas I have are to perhaps check the duct work under the house and try to repair accordingly.

Thanks again

 

Did the AC guy put gauges on the system?

 

Not to the best of my knowledge. I wasn't there when he came by, but apparently he briefly checked the ductwork, temperature split, and then ended up replacing our thermostat. I guess it's worth mentioning that our AC had stopped working entirely earlier this summer and it was due to a faulty thermostat...I don't think he spent long working with the AC unit before realizing that the thermostat was the problem...the thermostat was completely unrelated to the other problems I'm having.

 

I have seen some rentals that never change the filters or just took them out. If this is the case then the A coil will need to be cleaned. I'm not saying that is the only problem, but I would take a look at the coil first.

 

Do you mean evap coils? Just wondering. I'm stopping by lowes tonight to pick up some cleaner. If I get home at a decent hour I'll be cleaning both the indoor and outdoor evap coils (I know the outside could use it, haven't looked at inside unit)

googled "A coil" and realized you're talking about the indoor one. I plan on checking it out ASAP.

 

Yea evap coil. Let us know what happens.

 

Verdict not good. Even after thawing all day, indoor coils were a block of ice. When it did thaw, the coils didn't really look that bad. Most of system is pretty rusty, but it wasn't obscenely clogged or anything. What's worse, the system looks like it was installed to never be opened again (some type of sealant or caulk covering the entire outer panel). I did eventually crack it open, and I blow-dried the dang thing for 45 minutes to free it of ice, and restarted the system. It's been nearly 3 hours, and the house has cooled from 82 to 81 (which, frustratingly, tells me that our AC running all day doesn't do s**t, since it gets up to 80-81 with it running all afternoon, and it only got up to 82 without it running)

Open for more ideas. Terrified our leaser would rather pay us the termination fee to kill the lease and kick us out than pay for a new AC unit.

 

A couple of lbs of freon will probably get you through the summer.

 

That's what I'm hoping. AC ran all night and only got the house to 77...in other words it did nothing, and I shut it off this morning. Doesn't seem to be the coils or air filter, so freon is my next bet, but that's something that's a little less DIY for me...

Thanks for the help guys.