Okay, so you arrive home and find water coming from the ceiling or closet that has no plumbing in it. However, there is an air handler in these areas. What are you supposed to do next? So how do you get these water leaks to stop and prevent them from occurring again?
Shut off the air conditioning system from the thermostat first. Make sure to leave the fan on though. The reason why is abundantly clear in a moment. When the air unit runs and cools the system regularly it is subject to collecting a lot of moisture from the air. The south can be a very hot and humid place and the air conditioning evaporator can end up taking in a lot of water while running and cooling.
Should the air handler be shut down?
When you shut down the air handler, all of the water will then drain off from the evaporator coil. This is something that can cause more water damage. The reason that air conditioning water leaks do happen is because of an existing drainage issue.
Any Mr. Fix-it person today can be a man or a woman. Well, the good new is that this is an easy fix as the drain is obviously blocked up. The only way to discharge a blockage is by blowing it out. There is a 20% chance that the air conditioning water leaks could be caused by something else other than a blockage. So in this tip we are going to explore the easiest solutions first before moving onto more advanced ones.
The first thing that needs to be done is to go outside of your home and find the condensation line. Determine that there isn’t anything blocking up this line. You can take a piece of wire or some other flexible item and insert it into the p-trap that is located on the end of the drain line. Is there any water visible that is coming from the drain line? If the answer is yes to this question, you have already fixed the problem.
Air Conditioning Preventative Maintenance Time
Take a rag and wrap it around your garden hose and do the same for your drain line. Get someone to help you. Take your water hose and turn it on fast. Then proceed to shut it off quickly. Turning the water hose on and shutting it off quickly will prevent flooding from happening in your home. The reason why this is being done with the hose is to clean out any slime that may be inside the drain line itself. Another thing that is highly recommended to do is to extend the existing drain line out from the house by 12 inches. The reason for doing this is so there is no standing water remaining at the base of your home. The presence of any standing water is something that can draw termites to anyone’s home, so keep this in mind. Any water that is left around will be immediately taken away to dry out elsewhere. If you have made it this far, good job!
Air conditioning water leaks can prove to be complicated. However, this doesn’t mean they cannot be corrected properly and easily in some cases. You just need to figure out where the leaks are coming from. If your air handler is in the closet and you can get to it successfully, determine if there is a cap on the pipe at the end of the drain line. This drain line should be leaving the air handler. Take off the cap and pour a bleach solution down into the opening. This action will help to kill off any existing slime that was previously talked about here. A lot of air units don’t have this port installed right at the air handler itself. Place the cap back on the pipe of the drain line. The following preventive maintenance tip should be applied once or twice a year in the south. Service Alert Air Conditioning & Plumbing does recommend this procedure to keep an air conditioning system clean and running efficiently.
If your air handler is located in the attic area, get up there, and apply the very same method of a bleach solution. Are you described as being a much more advanced Mr. fix-it someone? If you are, turn off the air conditioning system at the disconnect, and then open the side panel and remove it.Take a flashlight and proceed to look into the drain pan itself. Make sure that there isn’t any blockage or presence of slime in the drain pan. Take the bleach solution and pour it into the drain pan itself. Confirm that the solution does drain out from the drain pan. Replace the side panel back and turn on the air unit at the disconnect switch. Go to the air conditioning thermostat and reset the temperature to a setting that is appropriate for cooling.
Hopefully these air conditioning water leak tips will help you identify and fix your future problems.