Prevent Water Damage - Stop a Leaky AC Unit

Running an air conditioning unit all summer can keep your home cool and comfortable. However, when you notice water gathering around the AC unit in your basement, leaking on your ceiling, or even around your air vents, it’s time to find the cause of the leak and make sure that water damage hasn’t caused mold or mildew growth in your home.

Here are a few things to watch out for when you notice your AC unit leaking water where it shouldn’t.

• Check for low refrigerant. If you hear a hissing or bubbling noise, you have leaking refrigerant. When refrigerant is low, AC systems lowers, causing coils to freeze over and melt. This produces puddles of water where water shouldn’t be. With a refrigerant leak, a repair may be able to fix the problem, but in some cases, the AC unit will need to be replaced.
• Look at the air filter. Is it dirty? If so, that dirt and debris is blocking airflow to the evaporator coil. When air cannot get to this coil, it can cause the air conditioner to become too cold and eventually freeze over. Once you turn the unit off, the ice begins to melt, causing a steady drip. This drip will eventually fill up the drip pan, causing water to leak from the unit onto the floor of your home. Check your air filter regularly to avoid this from happening and replace every 1 – 3 months, depending on how dusty your home gets.
• Is the drip pan damaged? A drip pan has one job – to keep the water that falls from the air conditioning unit away from the floor and into the drain line. If this pan is cracked or rusted it cannot perform its job, meaning water will leak into places it shouldn’t. Replace the drain pain every 12 – 15 years, or as you notice there are issues occurring.
• Condensate pump is broken. If your air conditioning unit is in your basement, the condensate pump will send water outside your home. When this breaks, water has nowhere to go except inside and it begins backing up directly into your basement. A broken condensate pump is easy to replace and will return the water back outside and away from your home, where it belongs.
• Finally, check for a clogged condensate drain line. This line can become clogged with a myriad of grime, dust and dirt. Using a wet vac to clean out the sludge ensures that the drain line is clean and clear, allowing water to flow freely through and away from your home. This is the most common cause of water leaking from an AC Unit, so always start here when experiencing a leak from your air conditioning.

The bad thing with a leaky air conditioning unit is that you may not notice the issue until it has been happening for several days or weeks. By this time, the water has had time to settle nicely into floors and walls, and may have begun to already form pockets of mold and mildew.

Start by drying out the affected areas as quickly as possible. High powered fans and a wet vac do the trick nicely while you wait for a professional restoration company like Alpha Omega Commercial Restoration to arrive.

Our team of water damage experts is on call 24/7, and have over 50 years of combined experience in the restoration industry. We’ll work directly with your insurance company if necessary. We have the right tools to come in and quickly assess the situation and fix the water damage or mold problem as quickly as possible, making sure we do it right the first time.

Contact Alpha Omega Disaster Restoration today 406-341-2526 for emergency property damage cleanup and restoration services by Alpha Omega Disaster Restoration of Billings and Laurel, MontanaUnderstanding that your time is valuable, we want this experience to be as painless as possible for you and your family. Call us today and set an appointment, or use our emergency services now to begin your mold removal process, and start your water damage restoration project right away.