Is THAT why the bedroom was so hot?
Originally uploaded by tomboone

For the last few days my apartment has been unbearably hot as New Haven undergoes its first stretch of 90 degree days. In particular, my bedroom was staying even hotter than the outside temperature despite having its own air conditioning unit.

Before attempting to go to sleep tonight, I had a sudden urge to remove the front cover of the AC unit to see if I could spot any problems.

As you can see in the picture above, there was a HUGE problem. It was frozen solid with about a half inch of ice surrounding the entire cooling mechanism. Worse still, the thermostat sensor was sitting right in the midst of all that ice, so as far as the thermostat was concerned, the room was already absolutely frigid, so the compressor wasn't running.

I grabbed my trusty clothes steamer and spent about 15 minutes melting the ice. Afterward, I reassembled everything and turned the AC back on.

The room began cooling down immediately.