i have a tenant complaining of water spraying from her air conditioner. i know that water buildup usually indicates improper tilt, but this thing is installed through a brick wall and has been there for years, so that's not it. what other issues might cause this? i haven't been there to look at it yet, so i'm not sure how well it's cooling...

thanks

 

I am not an AC expert but if water is spraying into the house, it says that the drain pan is probably not draining. Perhaps some sort of blockage in the drain hole(s). When the water builds up, the fan picks it up and takes it in with the cool air. Good luck and watch this post for the expert opinions.

 

I'd say the unit needs a good cleaning.. When was the last time you look it out and clean the coils, and filter??

There is a small channel between the indoor/outdoor part to drain the water to the back pan for the outside fan to pick up.. So DO NOT drill holes on the pan outside.

 

i cleaned the coil and the filter at the beginning of the summer, actually. but just ran a shop vac over everything else very quickly. from what i've read here, i'm guessing the channel to the outside pan is blocked up. earlier in the summer there were pigeons roosting on top and plugging up the outside with nesting material, so there was quite a lot of debris in the unit. maybe i missed something when cleaning it out.

thanks, and i'll post again if i can't figure out how to correct this.

 

an update: i checked out the unit, and it wasn't leaking water at the time, but the tenant says it's because she turned the unit down some. it seems to me that it's not cooling real well at all - in fact, i was poking around at it from the outside, and it seems like the air coming off the OUTSIDE is cold, while the air coming inside is warmish. the filter is clean and the inside fins look very clean as well. there was a LOT of dirt on the screen with the fan behind it - could that have been a factor? bad airflow? also, a friend told me to check the air exchange setting - he said that if it's set to open, this will cause poor cooling. i don't know what the setting was since the knob is broken...

in any case, i couldn't find any hole for water to work it's way back - might i have to take out some screws and do some disassembly to find it?

thanks