Air conditioner freezing up question

DutchmenSport wrote:
Only once did we have our air conditioner ice up. It was blowing nothing but hot air. It took a little to figure it out, that it iced up. I thought something serious was wrong. It wasn't.

I learned (and you can disagree with me, that's ok)... that in high heat and high humidity if the air conditioner runs for a very long time, the coils can ice up. The problem was resolved when I turned the thermostat to a higher temperature, thus allowing the compressor to cycle on-and-off. The ambient air around the air conditioner needed to help melt down the ice. Once the ice melted, it worked just fine.

That was the day I learned to initially set the air conditioner to a warmer setting, just low enough it kicks on. Once it reaches temperature, it will turn off (of course). Wait a couple minutes, then lower the temperature ever so slightly.

Once it reaches the new temperature, it will shut off again. Wait again and turn the thermostat down a pinch more again. Keep repeating.

If the compressor runs non-stop and is so cold the ambient air cannot actually .... (evaporate) ... it freezes up.

Of course, you REALLY only need to do this when the inside temperature of the camper is like .... a thousand degrees and the outside temperature is 2 thousand! (Ok, like closer to 95-100 and the outside temperature is not much cooler).

When temps are in the 70-80's and even low 90's, the air conditioner compressor will cycle on-and-off, giving the ambient air around it time to actually evaporate condensation and such.

The secret is to set the temperature so the compressor will cycle. Flipping it on with the thermostat as low as it will go and it's 100 degrees outside, and 120 inside, will never allow the compressor to cycle off-on. You CAN expect the coils and fins to ice up.

Ever since I started doing this, we never had ice build up again.

If the outside temperature is just too hot for the air conditioner compressor to cycle, and it runs constantly non-stop, they (may) ice up.

If it does, the solution is to simply turn the air off and let it thaw, then lower the thermostat slowly, little bits at a time.

Thanks, Dutchman. This was the kind of info I was looking for. Personal experience about how your perfectly good ac was freezing up and how you solved the problem. I was hoping to run the ac on low fan speed at night when trying to sleep because the higher speed is quite noisy. Do you always run yours on high fan speed? Even at night?