air conditioner

[Serephino]

We're having a problem with the stupid thing that involves water.  When you turn it on it sounds like you're putting something through a wood chipper kind of.  We tilted it and drained the water, and it was fine for a little while.  Then the other day everything under it was soaked.  Yesterday we drained it again and put a towel under it, and it's running fine again.  My mom told us to look for a drain hole, and we didn't see one.  Do we need a new air conditioner?

[Beguile's Mistress]

What you seem to have is a lot of condensation which is normal.  I'm assuming this is a window unit so you might want to try to change the angle so the outside part is a bit lower.  That will allow the water to drain toward the outside.  Even a quarter of an inch will help. 

[The Dark Raven]

Definitely sounds like the condenser is getting full.  If you tilt it like BeMi says, it will definitely help with the drainage (your drain should be on that outside edge someplace), and the water will not fill up so bad.  Is it really hot/humid where you are right now?

[Serephino]

Yeah, it's been a humid summer.  This has only been a problem the last month or so though.  It is tilted a little, but maybe needs tilted more? 

[LostInTheMist]

If you don't turn it off at night, and the temperature outside drops below the temperature to which you are cooling the house, you can damage the air conditioner. I know this because I managed to severely damage my air conditioner last year in August when things were really hot during the day, but then cool at night, and I left the air conditioner running 24/7. The water, however, is a normal thing. Water from hot, humid air condenses on a cool surface, like it does on a glass pitcher full of ice cold lemonade. (Which sounds REALLY good right now.)

[Blythe]

Am assuming you're using a wall AC, Sere?

One of the problems I had with my AC unit was similar to this. Turned out that excess moisture was freezing on the evaporator coil and causing this unpleasant loud noise. Required turning the AC off immediately to avoid damage to the unit. There's a couple of reasons the freezing can happen, usually due to restricted airflow or a refrigerant issue.  Anyways, the coil was getting encased in ice, and eventually it would start dripping condensation as the ice attempted to melt off. (My issue was an airflow one, which I resolved).

The other problem I had when it did this again was due to water collecting too much in the drain pan due to a blockage (sloped pan usually somewhere under the evaporator coil, there is a drainage hole somewhere on the low point of this, usually). If you still have the owner's manual for your AC, it might tell you where to find the drainage hole.

*fingers crossed* I hope you are able to get it to drain properly!