AC repair in Northern Virginia: “condensate line was backing up and leaking water”

About this job

SwiftPro's note, in our words, on the problem in this review.

Water on the floor near your indoor unit almost always comes from a blocked condensate drain.

On a humid day the coil wrings gallons out of the air, and every drop has to leave through a single small line.

That's why this one backed up on one of the hottest days of the year, when the AC was working hardest.

The diagnosis was a clogged discharge pipe, and it got cleared.

If you spot a puddle, shut the system off before it soaks through, because in a condo the ceiling below may be your neighbor's.

Clearing it gets you through today; a longer-term fix was offered here and is being scheduled.

For a condensate drain, a lasting fix usually means adding a trap and an overflow switch, which cuts the AC off before anything spills.

These lines gum up slowly over a season or two, so cleaning the drain belongs on every spring maintenance visit, well before it overflows.