My home AC is leaking water from a overflow pipe...why?
Question:I have 2 Carrier units in my Texas attic...one is dropping water from the roof pipe...the other is not. I have regular maintainence and replaced freon last year. What are the most likely causes?
Answers:
that's what it is for. The AC removes moisture from the air and it turns in to a liquid and runs out of the overflow pipe.
condensation on the cooling coil
You will always have water (condensation) from a properly working AC unit. Normally, there is a drain line that exits the building from the drip pan. These can sometimes get clogged with bacteria that grows in the line.
Your primary drain is clogged, that's why it's coming out of the back up. Go in the attic and check, it may simply be clogged where it exits the unit. If not try compressed air , use a rag to help hold the pressure and blow it out. Would be a good time to check your filters and coils (if accessable) too.
It's condensation.
It's like the water that leaks out of your car with the AC running.
overflow caused by clogged drain or condensate tray leak...
easy to fix the first one, more complicated to fix the second one.
The water you see draining is normal. Check to see if the other unit is working properly. You may have a plugged discharge tube. Take a small wire or a small flexible drain snake and see if you can get it to drain. I'm sorry but you didn't specify if both units are a/c. One may be heat only. You mentioned you have two units this to me is rare.
Follow the pipe back. You will find either that it is attached to the condenser coil or to a metal pan under the coil and other parts of the air conditioner. If the coil, then it is normal and both should be dripping. If it is the pan there will be water in the pan and water dripping from somewhere on the unit where it should not and the regular (coil) drain is clogged.
I'm pretty sure that what you are referring to is the condensate line. The "leak" is actually an indication that the a/c unit is removing condensation - in other words, it's doing what it's supposed to do. Check the non-leaking line, remove it and run a strong stream of water through it to make sure that it isn't clogged. These lines have a tendency to clog with green scum, dirt, etc. Reinstall the line after you've cleaned it. When working properly, condensate (water) should come out of both lines.
The unit that is dripping from the overflow pipe has a plugged "primary drain."
This is very common because the pipe diameter is small and the flowrate is so low, that you can get mold buildup in the drain pipe.
I live on the texas gulf coast and have this same problem
You can check the line out of the AC unit to insure it's open. If the main drain is plugged, you will have to roto-rooter the main drain line from the attic out of the house.
you have 2 drains. Normally there should only be water coming out of one. If you trace them back it will be obvious which is your primary and which is the, as we call it around here, the "oh s***" drain" If you see water coming out of the secondary drain you got a problem. The sludge buildup in the primary drain caused the secondary drain to dump.
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