If you live somewhere like Houston you are no doubt familiar with air conditioning, and if you don’t originally hail from such warm climes you’re no doubt dependent on it. But many people dependent on air conditioners don’t know how they work or how to maintain them. Now installing and maintaining a small window unit is one thing, they can usually be put in without tools and maintained and serviced with a simple cleaning of the filters. However, if you have a larger system it’s important to know what to look for and when to call an air conditioning service.
With either type of unit one important thing to listen and look for is “spitting” your air conditioner should not be spraying water out of its vents. If this is happening with a window unit most likely it is not draining properly. A quick explanation would probably help, it’s important to know how things to work to appreciate how complex they are. Air conditioners work by compressing a refrigerant gas to liquid state then pushing it through an expansion chamber, it cools and expands to gaseous form and a fan blows the air around the chamber. The air that gets blown is colder because it’s moving past the cold expansion chamber. By taking in air and cycling it through the system it cools the air enough to remove some of the moisture from it. Ever see a glass of ice water get covered in condensation? That’s because the humidity in the air turns to liquid in contact with the cold glass. This is why air conditioned rooms usually have lower humidity as well as being cooler.
So why is your AC spitting water out?
With a window unit the problem and fix are simple. Window units usually drip water out, if the angle is wrong the water might not be getting out fast enough, water pools and the fan starts hitting it causing it to spray up and out. Now if you’re lucky you can fix this just by changing the angle of the unit in the window. If you have a central air unit you might want to call an air conditioning service company so they can take a look. Generally speaking there is a limited amount you can do with a small or central unit, you can keep the vents clean of dust and grime, you can clean fan blades (sometimes) and the like, but things beyond that will most likely need professionals.
Air conditioners are infinitely safer than they used to be, at times the refrigerant air was actually propane, and it’s now Freon. Despite the increased safety, they are still rather complex bits of machinery. If your AC is making a strange noise, spitting water, or not functioning like it’s supposed to, you need to call an air conditioning service company. No one wants to be trapped in the Houston heat without air conditioning, so hopefully you can catch it before things totally fail on you.
