An air conditioner is an essential appliance in homes, especially in Orange County. The County with a humid climate has continuous usage of the air conditioner at all times of the year. Due to extensive usage, it’s evident that the air conditioner shows some signs of reduced efficiency or water leakage. From time to time, you might notice leakage of water outside your AC. But it might be alarming to see the puddle of water underneath your AC unit. So, it becomes essential to understand when the water leakage from AC is usual and when it’s time for air conditioning repair.

Air conditioning allows you to have a cool breeze even in the hottest months of the year. It would be the worst scenario to see your air conditioning system not working suddenly on a humid day. To ensure that you do not suffer from such a situation, you must keep a check on the efficiency and the water leakage of your air conditioner. But it would be best if you also remembered that it’s not always dangerous for AC to leak water.

For understanding the causes of your air conditioner leaking water outside, carefully read the article below. Before understanding the causes, let’s see the difference between normal and excess water leakage.

How Much Water Is Too Much To Drain From Your AC?

There’s a difference between normal and adverse conditions of water leakage from AC. Water leaks from AC units are normal, but in your daily use, the air conditioning system should leak water only when it’s working. If it continuously leaks water even when it is switched off, you need to hire experts offering air conditioning repair services in Orange County and get your AC repaired.

The amount of leakage should be less so that it could evaporate on a hot sunny day. If the amount of water leaking out of the system is more than it could dry up during the day, that is a matter of concern. Or if the water is continuously leaking from the AC and the amount is high, you should know that it requires routine inspection by the top air conditioning maintenance services in Orange County.

Now you know how normal the amount of leakage is. Let’s see the reasons that lead to leakage of water from AC more than the normal quantity.

Common Reasons That Might Lead To The Leakage Problems In Your Ac Unit.

1) Improper Installation

The first primary reason for the excess water leakage outside your air conditioning system is its improper installation. If you installed the cooling system just a month ago and it is already leaking water outside, it is possibly due to improper installation. The technicians should install the drainage pan in the system correctly and in the right place. If you don’t do it properly, you might face the problem of leaking water.

Another probable mistake in installing can be improper seizing and complete flat installation of the unit. This causes the spilling of the water inside your house. You should hire the best air conditioning services for installation to avoid any unnecessary issues.

2) Clogged Condensation Drain Line

This method is another most common reason for the leakage from AC. The moisture that gathers in the unit during this humidification period has dirt and dust particles. If you do not clean the drain at that time, the dust and debris accumulate in the pipe. This accumulation causes the blockage of the drain line. It further leads to a collection of water in the unit since it’s not allowed to escape. After some time, this water starts spilling or dripping outside your system.

Nowadays, companies have invented air conditioning systems that can detect the clog in the drain line and stop working independently. This technology is a reasonable detection system that can save your house from spilling water and the damage caused by it. In such a case, instead of doing it by yourself, you should call the experts. For expert assistance, you just need to contact the professional air conditioning repair technicians in Orange County to clean and remove the debris from your AC. They will eliminate the clogging problem in your AC system without any mess in your house.

3) Damaged Drain Pan

You can locate the AC drain pan under the AC coiling or the air handler. Its primary function is to collect the water that drips in that area. If by any means the drain pan of your unit is damaged or rusted, the water from the drain pan drips out of the AC instead of going to the drain line. If you have an old AC unit and face a water leakage problem, the reason can be the damaged drain pan.

Over the years, the drain rusts due to continuous contact with water and the occasional dust particles. You can repair the cracked drain in simple steps if you want to do it by yourself.

Firstly you need to clean the drain pipe.
After that, examine the cracks and rust present in the pan.
Now you can use the water to rinse all the debris that might have struck the drain line.

However, air conditioning repair companies can perform excellent work in repairing the cracks. So directly visit the experts and avoid all the hassle of doing it by yourself.

4) The Broken Condensate Pump

Another possible reason for water leakage from AC is the broken condensate pump or the float switch. If you have placed your HVAC system at a distant place such as a basement, the water doesn’t easily escape from the drain line. In such cases, condensate pumps come into use. There is a float switch attached to the condensate pump. When the water level in the condensate pump rises, the float switch turns on and allows the water to exit from the condensate pump.

When the condensate pump brakes or the float switch doesn’t perform well, the water collects in the condensate reservoir beyond its limit. This condition leads to the spilling of the water outside it. You can hire a professional air conditioning repair in Orange County or change the condensate pump or float switch.

5)Frozen Evaporating Coils

Evaporator coils are the part of the AC that is inside your house. The evaporating coils freeze due to the refrigerant leak. Another reason for frozen evaporating coils can be due to blocked airflow. However, the blocking of airflow further leads to the building up of the moisture. Due to this, the drain pan overflows, and water leaks outside the AC unit.

You need to figure out the reason for the freezing in the evaporating coils. By checking vents, air filters, and ducts, you can conclude the reason for the frozen evaporating coils. By cleaning these areas, you can restore airflow and fix the freezing coil problem. You can’t fix the ice freezing problem by cleaning vents if it’s caused because of a low refrigerant problem. When the ice from evaporating coils melts, it leads to the dripping of water from the AC.

This problem looks simple and easy. But you can’t fix it yourself, so the professional air conditioning maintenance company can help you overcome the problem by refilling the refrigerant.

6)Build Up Condensation

Condensation is one of the normal processes of your air conditioning system’s dehumidifying process. But sometimes, overfilling of the condensation leads to water leakage outside the system through vents and ducts. Water starts dripping on the insulation of your house and may lead to more damage. Due to the moisture and water, some types of molds begin to grow in the air ducts. These molds can deteriorate the inner system and reduce the air coming out of it in your house.

There are various reasons for the condensation build-up.

Warm air from outside can reach the cold surfaces of the AC unit; this leads to excess condensation than the normal levels.
The dirty air filters and clogged ducts don’t allow air to circulate freely in the unit. Blockage of air leads to cooling of the air, and that in turn increases the condensation.
High humidity in the months of summer also results in increased condensation.

Insulating the ductworks in the best possible way is the promising solution for the compensation build-up problem. Insulated ductworks don’t allow warm air to reach the inside system avoiding higher water build-up.

7) Dirty Air filters

One of the underlying causes of frozen evaporating coils is the dirty or clogged air filters, which lead to excess water leaking through the drain pan. But what causes the air filters to clog?

The air filters ensure proper air circulation. They trap air pollutants and dust particles and allow fresh air to reach inside your home. So it’s evident that if you don’t clean the filters over the years, they block with the debris. Blockage of the filters provides poor quality of air and also results in frozen evaporating coils. All these problems in AC also reduce the efficiency of the unit. So from there, you understand the importance of keeping your air filters clean. Hence, after the summer season, when you use AC for long hours, you should get the complete servicing of the AC by calling a professional air conditioning maintenance service provider.

Conclusion

You can see the importance of regular maintenance and servicing of the AC unit as you go through the various causes of water leaking outside the air conditioning system. AC is something that you use for only a few months in places with low temperatures. Still, in the countries experiencing high temperatures in 6-8 months of the year, air cooling systems usage is much more. For them, it’s essential to have proper maintenance and cleaning of the AC.

You should clean and dust the condensate drain, fan, inner and outer coils regularly to avoid the causes of the water leaking. Are you still confused about hiring air conditioning repair services in Orange County? You can hire specialists to do the maintenance of the AC unit because leaking of AC might reduce the efficiency of the AC and increase the electricity consumption. So, as soon as you notice leaking water, contact the Air conditioning repair company in Orange County to get the solution and repair to fix the problem for you.