Water dripping from my indoor AC unit onto the wall — how do I stop it?
The indoor unit of my split AC has started dripping water — it's staining the wall below it. It's not constant, more when it's been running a while. Is this dangerous and what causes it?
3 answers
Not dangerous, but fix it before it damages the wall. Two usual causes:
- Blocked condensate drain line (most common). The indoor unit collects condensation in a pan that drains away through a pipe. In the UAE that pipe clogs with dust/algae, the pan overflows, and water comes out the front instead of draining. The fix is a drain-line flush — a technician clears it in minutes.
- Frozen coil melting. If your filters are filthy, the coil ices up, then melts and overwhelms the pan. Same symptom, different root cause — check the filters (see AC running but not cooling).
Switch the unit off to stop the dripping, clean/replace the filters, and book a drain flush. If it's a chilled-water FCU rather than a split, it's the same drain-pan story — see musty smell from chiller vents.
Had the exact wall stain. It was a blocked drain line full of gunk — flushed in 10 minutes and it's been dry since.
For anyone whose 'leak' is really a drainage/backup issue rather than a simple drip, there's a more detailed thread on when a condensate pump and its float switch are involved — useful if your unit is a concealed/ceiling one that can't gravity-drain, because then an overflow is a pump/float problem, not just a blocked drain.
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