Need fast help, late at night and drippy ceiling!

BlochWave

Just going to the bathroom like normal on a relatively normal day with the AC running like normal, and I noticed that there is a pretty high speed drip from the ceiling of the bathroom. I'm lucky I caught it cuz it's fast, 2 or 3 drips a second.

It's coming from the AC...uhh..cover...thing. Here is a picture http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8028/drip.jpg

you can actually see a drop, on the far right corner of the cover. It's nearly midnight here and I don't have a pan that can take the dripping all night. What can I do? Should I take that cover off? If I do, is there likely to be anything I can fix? Interestingly the AC just kicked on and the drip slowed noticeably (from like 3 times a second to like 1.5, still fast)

Skoal Cat

I suspect its just condensation. You don't have a trash can, bucket, or pot to put under it?

Viscountalpha

You might have a plugged drain line/ something spilling where the AC unit is. I'd have that checked out ASAP before it causes serious damage.

BlochWave

Skoal Cat wrote:

I suspect its just condensation. You don't have a trash can, bucket, or pot to put under it?

I am exceptionally narrow-minded and didn't consider a trash can. Well done! Unfortunately the bathroom is adjacent to my room and the dripping may drive me MAAAAAAD

Is this something I can help prevent in the future, or is something broken? I'm in an apartment, if that isn't clear, so I don't, you know, do things. With stuff

BlochWave

Roger, I'll tell the office in the morning. Meanwhile, a towel in the bottom of the trash can should provide enough sound dampening to keep my sanity intact.

Skoal Cat

There is also this old trick
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/hot-tip/tie-a-string-when-you-turn-down-the-heat-136444

dispatch.o

I see you too disconnect the fire alarms in your apartment. Does anyone ever leave those things intact, ever?

What's the humidity like there? I know when growing up with no humidity and using a swamp cooler, the floor would be soaked when the tile would cool at night and the humidity spiked from the cooling. The solution was a dehumidifier, but it really was just the bathroom that had the issue so the volume of air it had to deal with was small.

I have heard of people using other tricks, I can't really vouch for them though.

BlochWave

I see you too disconnect the fire alarms in your apartment. Does anyone ever leave those things intact, ever?

Hm? That's the sprinkler, and as far as I know it should be operational. The smoke detector is in another room, and does work since it went off the other day because of some overzealous cooking.

Dr. Frenchenstein

if you are in an apt, just tell your landlord/mgmt company. Are you on the top floor?

Enc

There is usually a condensation pan beneath your AC unit that collects the dripping moisture and then runs it down a series of PVC pipes to the outside (by your exterior unit you should see one popping up out of the ground like a faucet, usually dripping nonstop if things are working correctly). What can happen, and does pretty often, is that something crawles in there and dies, or mold builds up in the line and clogs it. When that happens, the water dosen't have anywhere to go and slowly builds up until it is overflowing the pan, causing flooding.

If this is your place, you will need to confirm there is blockage and find the source of the moisture/if your drip pan is overflowing. Be sure to turn off your AC if that is the case. To clear it, there are a lot of options (a shop vac can do the trick), though if it is really bad you should call the AC company.

If you don't own the property, shut off your AC immediately and get them on the line. Leaking moisture can cause a ton of problems beyond making your bathroom lousy, as that water can do all sorts of hell with whats in the wall. The only way to stop additional moisture is to stop the AC, which sucks.