How to Stop Air Conditioner Condensation Drip

Part of the Video Series Home Improvement & Repair Tips

Viewing videos requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Get the latest Flash player.

The primary condensation drip line of air conditioners can get clogged with algae and backed up, causing water drips in your house. Learn how to clean out a backed up condensation line in this free online home improvement video, with DIY home repair tips.

Rating:
Views: 17,976
Comments: 1 (read)

Favorited: 2 | Add to Favorites

Tags: condensation, diy, fix, repair
Bookmark at:

All Videos in the Series, Home Improvement & Repair Tips

Member Comments

Posted by billin on Monday, 09 July, 2007 at 7:00 PM

(mark as spam)

We were having weird wet spots on the carpet show up on the 2nd floor. I couldn't figure out what it was for a day or two (there were no drain lines under the floor there) before I noticed that there was an air conditioning vent right under the floor there. That turned out to be coincidental, but it made me look at the air conditioner in the attic. Thank goodness for this video! I had absolutely zero idea about A/C units and didn't even realize they usually come with a drain for the condensation. After using a snake on the line and furthermore using the water+bleach solution, the drain was fine again and stopped overflowing. Thank you!!!

Video Transcript

How to Stop Air Conditioner Condensation Drip
You may notice sometime that water is dripping out of a tube in a place that it’s never dripped before, and it’s a pretty annoying thing and it may be getting your porch or door wet. Well, there’s a reason for that. It’s called the backup condensation line - backup condensation drip line. And when water is dripping from this tube in a very conspicuous place, it’s your alert to unclog the primary drip line.

If your system is functioning properly, the condensation that’s building up on the condenser, which is 99% of the time in your attic, is coming out of the tube where it’s supposed to, which is a fairly inconspicuous place, normally it’s by the compressor outdoors. This is necessary because the water, the condensation building up in the unit, needs to go somewhere - otherwise it will damage your house. So when this backs up, it clogs up with algae, which is very common. Then the water starts to get diverted into a drip pan in the attic, and that’s what the other condensation line is letting you know - is that the water is then building up in that. So what you need to do is clean out this line, and I’ll show you where to do that.

So what you’ll need to do is brave your attic. Come up here and see what’s going on. If your system’s designed properly, this is the primary condensation line- the one that you need to clear out. And if it’s designed properly, there will be a clean out hole where you can open this up, expose this, and run some warm water with bleach into the hole, which will eat up the algae and free up the line. If it’s so far gone that it’s really stubborn, you’re going to need a snake and run it down as far as you can, and that will probably alleviate your problem. But otherwise, if this is clogged then the water is coming out into this pan, in which your condenser sits. And then it’s draining out of the back up line. And if this ever were to overflow, you’re going to have water seeping through your ceiling, and you’re going to have thousands and thousands of dollars of damage on your hands. So it’s very important to take care of this as soon as possible.

About the Expert

Expert: Greg Lim is a professional handyman and residential property manager. In the seven years he’s been a contractor, he has fully renovated two houses. Read More