Why Is My Furnace Leaking Water?
You just discovered there is a puddle of water on the floor in front of your furnace. Why would the furnace in your Villas, NJ, home be leaking?
It could be a few different things. In most cases, it is not a big repair, so keep calm.
However, you will need one of our Shore Guys Heating & Air heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) professionals to take a good look at it and resolve the issue for you.
A Leaking Furnace Can Lead to Bigger Problems
Do not delay. Any issue involving water can quickly become complicated if not addressed in a timely manner. It can also speedily snowball into other problems, such as mold and poor indoor air quality (IAQ), in your New Jersey home.
Schedule one of our highly trained professionals to diagnose the furnace problem as soon as possible.
How to Identify Your Furnace Type
There are a few different reasons your furnace could be leaking water, but the most common reason is a condensation leak. Before a causal determination can be made, our HVAC expert needs to know what type of furnace you have.
Is it a high-efficiency (condensing) or standard-efficiency (conventional) furnace? If you are not sure, it is easy to tell on your own. Take a look at its vent or exhaust pipe. If the pipe is white plastic (PVC), then your furnace is a high-efficiency system.
Another way to tell which type of furnace you have is by the annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) rating. If the rating is 90 percent or higher, your furnace has a cool exhaust and produces condensation; therefore, it is considered a high-efficiency, or condensing, unit.
On the other hand, if your furnace has a metal exhaust pipe, it is a standard-efficiency furnace and should not have condensation. It will have an AFUE below 90 percent.
Many times, furnaces have their AFUE rating printed on a yellow energy guide sticker in plain sight on the unit, since the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has very strict consumer product regulations for displaying energy usage.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case, especially in older models. Taking a look at the vent or exhaust pipe is a fairly accurate way to check, so do not worry if you do not know your furnace’s AFUE rating.
The Possible Causes of Your Furnace Leak
Again, the most common cause of a leaking furnace is condensation. High-efficiency furnaces extract heat from combustion gases for a longer period than a standard-efficiency furnace does, causing the gases to cool and then condense. Condensation is routed to a drain.
You might have a clogged condensation drain or tubing, a break in the condensation line, or issues with the condensate pump (if you have one).
A standard-efficiency furnace extracts some heat from the combustion gases and quickly vents them out the exhaust or flue pipe. So there should be no water involved with a standard-efficiency furnace. If there is a condensation leak, the exhaust or flue pipe may be incorrectly sized.
You really need one of our HVAC professionals to assess what is going on in your Villas, NJ, home. If we rule out a condensation leak, we can then help you with the other possibilities.
One such issue could involve your whole-house humidifier, especially if yours is connected to the furnace. It might be leaking inside your furnace, though having annual preventative maintenance on your HVAC system should help keep this from happening.
Another possibility is a clog in the internal drain system. If your air conditioning is running and it shares an internal drain with your furnace, the drain could be obstructed, sending water to your furnace.
Just so you are aware, the worst-case scenario is a faulty secondary heat exchanger, but it only applies to high-efficiency furnaces. Unfortunately, this problem falls into the big-repair category—generally resulting in a furnace replacement.
Call the Furnace Experts in Villas, NJ!
Whatever the reason for your furnace leak, it is time to call a nearby HVAC professional in Villas, NJ. At Shore Guys Heating & Air, we are always happy to assist you in every aspect of furnace care. Call us at 609-884-5016 or request service online.