Air conditioners are necessary for regions where the mercury levels shoot up during the summers. They not only help dehumidify your home and office but also ensure full comfort by reducing the temperature.
While air conditioners do work smoothly throughout the year if serviced regularly, you may notice water leaking from them every once in a while.
And you may wonder – why is my air conditioner leaking water?
First off — don’t panic. If your air conditioning unit is leaking water, it’s not a major problem. There could, however, be several reasons why it could be leaking. While it’s best to call a reliable AC service company to fix the problem, you can look for the issues yourself too.
To help you figure out the various causes for an air conditioner leaking water, we’ve put together this guide.
Table of Contents
Why Is My Air Conditioner Leaking Water?
Air conditioners may leak water due to a variety of reasons. These range from dirty coils to clogged drainage lines. Here are the most common causes that could be behind the water leak.
1. Clogged Drain Line
To understand why your air conditioning unit is leaking water, you need to first know how the water forms. When hot air blows over your evaporator coils, it causes water droplets to form on it.
This moisture then drips into a drain pan and then goes through a drain line that takes it outside of your home.
But what happens when this drain line itself is clogged?
There can be times when your drain line will get filled with dust, dirt, or even mold. In such a situation, the water won’t be able to pass through it. As a result, your drain pan may soon start overflowing and this could cause the water to drain into your home.
To solve this problem, you can use a wet or dry vacuum cleaner to clean the line. The best way of going about this is to get professionals to use a special vacuum to suck the dirt out.
2. Problems with the Drain Pan
As mentioned above, the water gets collected in the drain pan before it passes to the drain line. So, if there’s an issue with the condensate pan, there’s a good chance that the water may start leaking into your home.
Some of the potential problems that you could face with your drain pan include:
- Damaged drain pan
- Rusted drain pan
- Cracked drain pan
- Missing drain pan
3. Dirty Air Filter
Air filters are essentially used to clean the air that’s coming into your house. However, clogged and dirty air filters can lead to poor airflow over the evaporator coils. And when this happens, it can cause the evaporator coil to become too cold, which can lead to it freezing over.
Image via Bradshaw Heating and Air Conditioning
When the moisture on it melts, it’ll drip the excess water into the condensate drain pan and the pan may not be able to effectively discard all of it. This could lead to leakage. That’s why it’s a great habit to keep cleaning your air filter regularly.
4. Low Refrigerant Levels
Refrigerant is the key ingredient of any air conditioning system and if its quantity reduces, there’s a good chance that it’ll lower the pressure in the system. This, in turn, can cause the evaporator coil to freeze over.
When this frozen moisture melts, water will overflow in the drain pan. This excess water leaks from the air conditioner into your home.
You need to watch out for signs like low cooling and a bubbling noise to figure out if the refrigerant level is low.
FAQs
Q1. How do I stop my AC unit from leaking water inside?
A. To stop your AC unit from leaking water inside, you can take the following steps:
- Unclogging your drain pipe
- Cleaning your air filter
- Fixing your drain pan
- Checking your refrigerant level
Q2. How do you fix a leaking air conditioner?
A. To fix a leaking air conditioner, you need to first identify the problem. You would have to check your:
- Drain line
- Air filter
- Drain pan
- Evaporator coil
- Refrigerant level
The best way of going about it is to call a professional AC technician who can fix it for you.
Q3. How do you unclog a condensate drain line?
A. It’s important to unclog a condensate line to ensure that the water from the AC passes through it with ease. For this, you can use a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. Alternatively, you can call technicians who will use special equipment to clean it.
Q4. What causes excessive AC condensation?
A. There can be numerous causes of excessive AC condensation. These include:
- Clog in the drain line
- Dirty air filter
- Poor airflow over the evaporator coil
- Damaged drain pan
Final Thoughts
It can be annoying to see your air conditioner leaking water into your house. When you see it leaking water, you should first try to ascertain the cause behind it. One of the most common reasons for water leaking from your air conditioner is a clogged drain line. You should vacuum it to clean it up.
It’s also important to check the drain pan for any damage as it could be a potential cause of leaking.
What’s more?
Dirty air filters can also cause the evaporator coil to freeze and this can lead to leakage when the moisture on it melts.
Finally, low refrigerant levels can also freeze the evaporator coils and lead to the same results.
If your air conditioner is leaking water, get in touch with us. We, at Bradshaw Heating and Air Conditioning, have over 34 years of experience in offering HVAC services and tune-ups and can fix your air conditioning systems with ease.
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