air conditioning unit dripping

Water Dripping from Air Conditioner - We have 2 air conditioning units in our house and 2 pipes protrude from the roof. One of the pipes is dripping water. We were told to look for a blockage and to empty the pans. I don’t see where to check for a blockage. The air conditioning units we have: Bryant models 373LAV, 376CAV Downflow/Horizontal and 383KAV, 395CAV Upflow Gas Furnace.Water Dripping from Air Conditioner | Condensation Pipe Drain Answer Thanks for visiting High Performance HVAC and asking a good question. I see you have two zones so actually, you should have more than two drains. Possibly 3 or 4 drains depending on where the units are located. Typically air handling units installed in the attic or closet spaces upstairs will have two condensation drain pipes for condensation. There are some systems that utilize a pump rather than a drain.One is the primary condensation drain pipe where the water should continuously drain the condensation during the cooling season and in the winter heating season if you have a high efficiency condensing furnace.
In the summer it is possible these drains could get clogged up. Normally what clogs these condensation drain pipes is algae and crud growing in the pipe. It will usually block or clog the primary condensation drain causing the water to back-up in the unit. The water eventually finds its way to the secondary or emergency drain pan which should also have a condensation drain pipe attached to it that drains out the water when the primary condensation drain pipe gets clogged. We have many other related articles. freon for window ac unitWater Dripping from Air Conditioner | hampton bay wall unit acCondensation Drain PipeThese two different condensation drain pipes should be distinctly different from one another. my ac unit is sweatingOne should drain out in the flower garden or at the base of the house somewhere.
The other should drain over a window or someplace where it will be recognized when it is dripping water. This is a warning sign that the primary condensation drain pipe is clogged and needs to be unclogged.As a third measure of protection to prevent severe water damage to a ceiling a float switch is usually installed in the secondary pan so if it begins to overflow the float switch will kill the unit making it inoperable for use until the drains have been unclogged returning the unit to normal operation with all condensations drains open and freely draining condensation.Diagnostic ChecksThere are different methods of unclogging condensation drains. It is recommended that you call and HVAC Technician to unclog the drains because the unit could have another related problem that causes units to flood and a quick diagnostic check by a qualified HVAC technician will ensure this problem does not exist and it is actually a clogged condensation drain.A special tool that uses pressurized CO2 cartridges to blow the line is used sometimes while other times a shop Vac can suck the muck out of the line.
Water hoses can also be used to flushed the line although one must be very careful because you can actually cause reverse flooding and cause more damage than a clogged condensation drain ever could. Condensation Drain Pipe TerminationFind where the lines terminate outside the house and make sure the ends or not plugged by dirt or something else. Slugs or snails love crawling inside of the pipes and they can also cause a clog so make sure the pipe is up a little and not in the dirt of the flower garden. Please use the search feature to the right to help you find other related articles.To learn more about HVAC click here.Water Dripping from Air ConditionerRepairs to condensate leaks at ductless split-system air conditioners: Diagnosis & repair of condensate leaks from a split system air conditioning system. This article explains the common causes of water found dripping from the indoor half of a split system air conditioner or heat pump unit and offers repair suggestions matched to the AC unit leak cause.
Condensate leaks from a wall mounted air conditioner can cause costly building damage including mold contamination of wall cavities or other building areas. This article series describes split system air conditioning & heat pump systems. A split system or "ductless" air conditioning (or A/C & heat pump) system dispenses with duct work entirely, using a wall-mounted indoor evaporator/blower unit and a separate outside compressor/condenser (below left and right). split system air conditioning design, one compressor/condenser may serve multiple wall-mount indoor units. Each of these indoor units must have a condensate drain that directs condensate, produced by cooling humid indoor air, to the outdoors. Before it lost so much refrigerant that the split system air conditioner simply stopped cooling it had exhibited a different failure: condensate sometimes dripped out of the bottom of the unit into the occupied space where it was installed. The white pipe in our photo at left is the outdoor termination of a condensate drain for the indoor wall-mounted half of a split system air conditioner.
We'd like all of the condensate produced by the air conditioner to empty at this point. But sometimes instead we find condensate dripping from the indoor unit. At below left, the indoor AC unit periodically dripped water down the wall and into the room below. At below right we show the same unit with its cover removed to permit inspection of the condensate drip tray, drain line opening, and perhaps to discover other causes of dripping water from the unit. When a wall-mounted split system air conditioner drips water (actually air conditioner condensate) out onto the walls or floor below, there are the following most-likely causes, in order of probability: Watch out: condensate leaks that you don't see but that occur inside of a wall cavity can lead to wet insulation, costly mold damage, and over a longer time, structural rot or insect infestation damage. While the AirServ technician worked outside to add R-22 refrigerant at the compressor/condenser unit we removed the cover of the inside unit and promptly observed that the wall mounted unit was connected to its mounting bracket only at one end.
It was in fact hanging lopsided so that condensate in the drip tray flowed away from rather than towards the condensate drain. It was no surprise that this unit dripped onto the floors below. It was possible that the dripping was worse previously due to an iced-over coil as this unit also had now lost its refrigerant charge. And to be sure that we were not also leaving a clogged refrigerant line unattended, we borrowed the service tech's (kindly-loaned) CO2 gun and adapter to blast-out the condensate drain's discharge tube. See CONDENSATE DRAIN CLEAN & DE-CLOG for more options for clearing a clogged HVACR condensate drain line. There we commented that while we have found this CO2 condensate drain blaster a very helpful tool that will sometimes send a condensate drain obstruction out through the condensate drain system, in working on split system air conditioners whose condensate drain opening is difficult to access you may find that you cannot get the rubber condensate drain line plug securely in place.