willie g

One of the commercial properties I take care of has frozen spots all up and down the copper lines just above the ceiling grids, causing drips, molded ceiling tiles etc.

What causes this and what is the fix? The insulation around the copper lines is in pretty good shape and apparently it is freezing up at most of the joints in the insulation.

Garett

What's the pressure in the lines doing?

saltyreefer

you mean saturation temp, right?

saltyreefer

Call a tech out to check the system and the pipe insulation. Pressures alone won’t tell you much.

willie g

I sent a few pics to the guy that owns the company I've used for a number of years. He said put buckets under it and turn the unit off, that didn't sit too well with me. I was expecting him to say, its likely this or that, so I could give the owner and tenant a heads up as to what we might need to do to repair it.
We being, the A/C company and possibly me to open up turn off the alarm etc if it needs to be done after hours

One of his crews did some work on this property a few months ago, so they're familiar with the unit. They did not check freon or anything at that time.

Lorne Greene

Every time I have seen this happen it was low refridgerant.

mikefloyd

Pretty much the main reason for any part of the system freezing up.

hevysrf

Low airflow, low load. Dry, intact aflex should not drip under normal conditions.

Rolandt03

this along with dirty air filters!

Rolandt03

i think garret was meaning low pressure as in low on refrigerant!

Chimpo

Dirty coils and a fan motor not running will cause a freeze too.

HTJ

And/or an evap plugged with poo that snuck past the filter

20biminitwist

The coil is iced up and now refrigerant is flooding back to the compressor. Ice on the suction line is a no go!

Could be any of the things mentioned above.

It needs to be serviced before you scramble a compressor. It is not gonna fix itself!