Central Air Conditioner Coil Drain Pan

As air passes over the evaporator coils in your air conditioner it cools down and loses some of its humidity.

Central air conditioner coil drain pan.

The condensate drain pan is meant to collect water that results from the air conditioning process. Frozen coils most likely occur due to a lack of system maintenance. When the air conditioner blower pulls warm household air through the frigid passages of the evaporator coil the cooling effect causes water vapor to condense out of the air rapidly. So your walls don t become wet and also there are no puddles of water inside the house.

A clogged drain pipe is the most common cause of standing water in the drain pan. There is two or one condensate drain pan in central air units the number of drain pan in central air units are depending on the location of the air handler unit. The drain pipe is clogged. The drip pan is usually located just under the evaporator coils.

The drain line attached to the drip pan pours all the water in the drip pan outdoors. There are two types of drain pans. Due to gravity all the moisture that condenses on the evaporator coil falls into the drip pan. A primary pan that is installed on the coil and an auxiliary pan that is either installed inside the unit below the primary pan or under the unit.

A central air conditioner is normally mounted in a chamber of the furnace above the furnace blower and combustion chamber. The unit s evaporator coils are located here and directly underneath those coils is the drain pan. Diversitech a c secondary plastic condensate drain pan 30 x 30 black 6 3030l 4 4 out of 5 stars 70 camco washing machine drain pan for stackable units with pvc fitting collects water leakage and prevents floor damage white 21006. The moisture that the unit removes from the humid interior air condenses on the evaporator coils and drips into the pan.

Because the condensate drain pan is located right by the furnace either on top of below it is in the path of hot air with each heating cycle. If you aren t getting your ac unit checked or tuned up regularly or if you re not implementing regular filter changes then the coils could freeze. When homeowners do not use air conditioning they opt for heating in the colder months. Drip pans also called condensate pans are placed under the air conditioner coils to catch any condensation that forms.

The primary pan usually cannot be easily replaced because it is welded to the coil.