A Leak!

After a busy Saturday morning I was sitting anticipating a relaxing afternoon reading my eBook when Jan exclaimed “Water is pouring out of the Air-Con!”  That was a surprise as I decommissioned the water evaporative air-con system five years ago.  Our current systems (3) are refrigerated split-cycle units.

Water was indeed running out of the old 5kW air-con head unit in the dining room.  As there is no water connection to the system it was obvious the water was the waste product from the cooling mechanism.   The principle of the system is similar to a fridge.  The outside unit contains the compressor and a large fan.  Hot gas from the head unit on the wall inside the house is compressed to extract the heat.  The pump then sends the cool gas back to the head unit where it runs through a radiator.  A fan in the head unit sucks hot air from the room over the radiator where it’s cooled and recycled back into the room.  Moisture is captured from the hot air during this process.  It drips down the radiator blades into a horizontal trough at the base of the head unit and then piped outside through a drainage hose.

The drain hose must be blocked causing the water in the trough to overflow.

Getting the front cover off the head unit took some time as I didn’t want to break anything.  Now I know how it fits removal will be much easier in future.

The drain hose [C] connects to the head unit [B] at the left end.  The radiator trough runs along the front of the head unit [A]

Peering into the drainage hose I could see it was blocked with mould.  I squirted mould remover down the drain hose and along the trough.   After waiting 30 minutes I checked the drain hose and the blockage had gone.  A blast of air from my lungs helped it one its way down the pipe.

Reinstalling the cover and blades on the head unit was quickly done now I know how it is assembled.

Hopefully we have saved some money by not requiring the services of an air-con serviceman.