I am new to the forum and signed up in hopes that I could get some help with my problem. I live in Houston and the temps are reaching triple digits, the perfect time for my AC start acting up!! My girlfriend and I bought our house three months ago so we don't have any history on the unit but it is only a couple of years old. Our problem is a strange one. The central air was working fine, reached our desired temp of 78, and shut off. Once it warmed up again the fan on the outside unit and the fan in the air handler both turned on but the air was not as cold as usual. The outside was cold but not icy. We turned the thermostat off and the outside unit turned off but the fan in the air handler kept running for hours. I detached the t-stat from the wall but that did not help. The only way we were able to shut off the fan was from the exterior breakers. After a few hours of laying are naked with the ceiling fans on we turned the breakers back on and everything was fine....until it wasn't. This happens every few days and we are tired of going through our ritual to conjure up some conditioned air. A friend of a friend who owns an AC company sent his guys out (the unit was working fine at the time) and they said the gauges read perfect, everything was clean but they cleaned it again anyways, and they installed a brand new t-stat just in case. Everything worked fine for three days and now its the same symptoms. Any and all ideas would be much appreciated.

Hello, my central ac unit utilizes the restrictive flow tube instead of a TXV valve. The unit works fine when outside temperatures are in the 70's. When outside temp. gets to 81-82 degrees and the AC unit running, The inside temp will begin to rise with the outside temp. And as the outside temp grows higher lets say to 90 degrees for example, the inside temp (all the while the AC unit is running non-stop), the inside temp will be 84-86 degrees. During that time, an examination of the A-frame evaporation coil shows only along the bottom of both sides of the A-frame is frosting (not frozen with ice) over. The rest of the coil above that does not feel cold. Maintenance tells me the refrigerant is filled correctly and the air at the vents blowing into the room is 66 degrees. I'm trying to learn more about symptoms and causes so if anyone knows why the unit isn't blowing cold enough air to keep up, I'd be grateful. Items that have been replaced in the AC unit: 1.Capacitor 2.Line filter/dryer 3.compressor 4.freon Thanks :-)