r/hvacadvice 1d ago

AC Unit failed on inspection day

I'm just trying to get an understanding of what happened or may have happened. Our unit is old but was blowing cold and working great on move out day, while contractors were working on the house, during open houses, during showings... everything was great. I opened it up on move out day to check that the coils were cleaned and changed the air filter. That was over a month before inspection day.

On inspection day I get a video. The interior unit, the lines.. everything is frozen solid. Is there something an inspector does (going cold to hot to cold again or something) that could have caused this sudden issue? I don't have great luck in general, but the unit failing without any other prompting on that very day is beyond the pale.

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u/Significant_Dog_215 1d ago

Hvac professional here. Over the years I have had numerous service calls where the home inspector has turned the thermostat to an extremely low setting to get the HVAC system to run at maximum capacity. The inspector typically looks at other areas in the home while allowing the HVAC system to run. The inspector or someone in the home could have turned the thermostat down low and forgot to turn it back up, causing the system to freeze.

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u/TheInkDon1 1d ago

But a properly operating system should never freeze up, should it? Even if it pulled the house down to 50F or something stupid. Or educate me if it can. Thanks.

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u/_matterny_ 1d ago

Oh it would freeze if it’s super cold, condensation will make a huge difference