As the winter approaches, your furnace becomes more important than ever. Keeping you and your family warm and comfortable. Seeing water forming around the unit may start to worry you. This will usually indicate something is either leaking, dripping or not draining properly. With different furnace units there are different issues. Remember that you should never see water around your furnace unit–regardless of the type you have. Although, sometimes the issue can be minor and easily fixed, there are times where it’s a serious problem.
Here are four reasons your furnace may be leaking:
Reason #1: Condensation
Condensation is usually the most common cause for water around a high-efficiency furnace. What’s the cause for condensation? It’s usually clogged condensation tubing or drains, breaks in the condensation line and possible issues with the condensation pump if you have one. Secondly, if you have a standard-efficiency furnace (this has a metal exhaust pipe) condensation should not be an issue. However, if condensation appears, it is usually because the flue pipe was sized incorrectly. This could cause the hot exhaust to cool down, thus condensing in the pipe, draining into the furnace and then leaking out.
Reason #2: Humidifier
Sometimes there is a small device attached to a furnace which has various hookups for water, electricity and drainage–this is the humidifier. Some common issues with the humidifier include a clogged filter or drain which will cause the unit to leak. If left untreated, the leak could cause internal damage to your furnace unit.
Reason #3: Secondary Heat Exchanger
A secondary heat exchanger’s purpose is to remove heat from the exhaust of the furnace. If the secondary heat exchanger is faulty, this could be very costly to fix. Also if the problem is not solved then it may be time to replace your old furnace and install a new one.
Reason #4: Clogged Drain
Another probability of water around your unit could be an internal drain clog. If you still have your AC unit running, it could share an internal drain, causing an internal plug, which could create the leak. If left untreated, this could also pose further issues and prevent your furnace from working properly.
If you’ve noticed water around your furnace unit, don’t let it go untreated, it’s important to contact a heating and cooling contractors to provide furnace maintenance and address the issue. Contact the team at Lucky Air today.