Is your home watch professional visually checking your air handler drip pan for water on each visit? If not, I believe this to be a great disservice that could cost you thousands in repairs. Ultimately, the goal of hiring a professional home watch company like Blue Team Home Watch is the peace of mind created by the belief that they are hard at work doing everything possible to help you protect your investment. This is accomplished by actively searching for minor issues and correcting them while preventing the need for major repairs.
Aside from fire, I think we all agree, that water damage and uncontrolled humidity are the homeowner’s primary enemies in our harsh Florida climate. Home watch professionals have to be proactive and mustn’t wait for the disaster to occur before reacting. Therefore, relying on a safety switch or a moisture alarm to trigger an air conditioning unit to shut off without checking the drip pan regularly is, in my opinion, negligent and extremely risky. After all, this is arguably the single major component with the highest failure rate that can do the most damage quickly. It’s not a matter of if, but when it fails or shuts down, will it be discovered and corrected quickly? If we, as home watch professionals, wait to see obvious signs of moisture in the ceilings, walls, or floor, the damage is already done, costing clients thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. By ensuring this simple check is being completed on each visit, seasonal homeowners can rest a little easier knowing their home watch professional is doing their very best to help protect their investment while potentially saving them thousands in repairs.
If you own a home in southern Florida, you know we run our air conditioning units 24 hours a day. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how the air-conditioning system works will help you understand why this visual check is so critical. As a homeowner, you’ve no doubt noticed the dripping PVC pipe that sticks out of the side of your house or up from the ground that seems to drip water non-stop. That’s a good thing! That’s your AC drain, also known as a condensate line, and if it’s not dripping while your AC is running, your house probably feels warmer than usual and your thermostat might show a temperature deviation from your desired setting. These red flags indicate a problem. But, not necessarily a major problem requiring an AC service call. It could be as simple as vacuuming the outside drip line with a shop vac to clear the line of debris and excess water, or it could be as easy as replacing a dirty air filter or replacing your thermostat’s batteries may even correct the problem.
The AC air handler is normally located in a closet or attic and is designed to remove excess moisture from inside your home while blowing cool air into the home, and it needs someplace to deposit that excess moisture. The unit has what’s known as a condensate line that allows the excess moisture to continuously drain or drip safely to the exterior of your home. If the line becomes plugged with debris or microbial growth, the line can quickly back up with water filling the AC drip pan eventually overflowing, causing major water damage. Fingers crossed the safety triggers shut down the unit. But, what if those safety mechanisms fail? Conversely, if those mechanisms do work and you don’t catch it in time, you have the added problem of potential mold and algae growth developing quickly. Did you know that under the right conditions, excess humidity can result in mold growth throughout your home within 72 hours? Trust me, we found this out the hard way as new Florida homeowners and had to go through costly mold remediation. It’s no fun; it’s a slow painful process that took nearly three years to correct, and the final tally was around $50,000 in mold remediation and repairs. This is one reason we are so passionate about this topic and also why we got into this business in the first place.
I’m not suggesting home watch professionals place themselves in harm’s way by crawling into attics or crawlspaces, if that’s beyond their comfort level or capabilities. But, if an air handler is easily accessed using a step ladder or a pulldown and it can be viewed safely with a flashlight… why not check it for water? Let me qualify this by stating nothing in this article should be considered an alternative to hiring or at least consulting a qualified AC repair professional. We at Blue Team Home Watch have established a vast network of trusted professionals and utilize “phone a pro” whenever we encounter something that requires a professional tradesman’s opinion depending on the issue encountered. This has resulted in significant cost savings for our clients time and again. In the end, the best practice for preventing HVAC issues is having your customers on a regularly scheduled maintenance plan with a reliable AC company.
Nevertheless, a true home watch professional that discovers and prevents a costly disaster is not only a win for the customer but also a major win for the credibility and essential need for the home watch industry. The information provided is for educational purposes only. Because we don’t know what we don’t know.
This article was written by Jay Reed at Blue Team Home Watch, Serving Naples and Collier County. You can check us out on the web at Blueteamhomewatch.com or call us for a free in-home or online consultation at (239) 306-6200.
