What it is
When airflow drops or refrigerant runs low, the coil gets cold enough to freeze the moisture condensing on it. Once it is a block of ice, no air moves through at all and cooling stops entirely.
What you would notice
- Visible ice on the copper lines or the indoor coil
- No air, or barely any, from the vents
- Water everywhere once it starts thawing
Can you do this yourself?
Partly yours
Thawing it is safe and you should do it yourself: turn the cooling off, leave the fan running, and wait 4–24 hours. But the ice came from somewhere — restricted airflow or low refrigerant — and if you skip finding out which, it will freeze again within days.
What to say when you call
Red flags
- Anyone who recharges refrigerant without looking for the leak
- Being told to just run it and see
The call-out alone runs $100–$250 before any work, plus $40–80/hr on top, evenings and weekends. A whole new system is $3,800–$7,500 — compare every quote to that.
Where these numbers come from
- Installed figure is the diagnostic/service-call range; the repair cost depends on the cause
Did it turn out to be this?
Nobody has ever published how often an AC call turns out to be something cheap — the best figure available anywhere is one company's marketing page. So we are building it. No account, no email, and your ZIP is cut to three digits before it is sent.
← Every AC repair, with both numbers
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