TL;DR
The evaporator coil is the indoor heat exchanger of an air conditioner or heat pump — an A-frame or slab of refrigerant tubing and aluminum fins above the furnace or inside the air handler — where liquid refrigerant boils and absorbs heat from the passing airstream, cooling and dehumidifying it. A dirty or iced coil chokes airflow and capacity, and formicary corrosion of copper tubing is a leading cause of refrigerant leaks behind dead systems.
What it means
The evaporator coil is the indoor heat exchanger of an air conditioner or heat pump — an A-frame or slab of refrigerant tubing and aluminum fins above the furnace or inside the air handler — where liquid refrigerant boils and absorbs heat from the passing airstream, cooling and dehumidifying it. A dirty or iced coil chokes airflow and capacity, and formicary corrosion of copper tubing is a leading cause of refrigerant leaks behind dead systems. Replacement coils must match the outdoor unit's capacity and refrigerant under the AHRI match.
Where it sits in the glossary
Evaporator coil is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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