What To Do If Your Air Conditioning System Experiences Flooding or Hail Damage 

While your air conditioner is made to withstand the elements, including rain and storm damage, occasionally you need to call your AC maintenance technician to inspect likely damage. If your air conditioner sits in standing water, due to a torrential downpour or other unexpected issues, it can cause terrible damage to the moving parts and electrical sections. The water usually has to reach about 15 inches in depth to affect your air conditioner, but if there has been any flooding period, call Service Experts Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing for an AC inspection immediately. 

If severe storms or flooding caused your air conditioning unit to sit in standing water, there are a handful of things we suggest doing to avoid more damage or a dangerous environment: 

• Deactivate all the electrical switches for your air conditioner. If you are not comfortable with this, you can call your AC maintenance expert to help guide you through the process. 
• Allow your air conditioner to dry out. Clear out any standing water if possible and safely clear any debris from the immediate area. 
• Leave your AC system off until a professional AC inspection has been completed. Call Service Experts Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing and ensure your equipment will run safely and effectively with a full air conditioner safety inspection. 

NOTE: Do not cover your outdoor heating and air conditioning systems with a tarp. This could actually cause more problems, including not allowing the system to air out entirely and remove moisture, potentially causing rust or other damage. 

In addition to downpours, spring escorts in hail storms, as well. Annually thousands of commercial and residential air conditioning systems are in need of repair because of hail. While you can usually see obvious damage from the outside, you may not notice that the damage inside the air conditioning unit may be causing restricted air flow, decreasing the performance of the system. Sometimes you can fix the air conditioning system more easily, by combing the fins or replacing the coil, but an insurance company’s claim breakdown showed that around a tenth of AC systems damaged by hail had to be entirely replaced. 

High winds tend to accompany storms and while your AC system probably won’t get wind damage, other objects picked up by the wind, like tree limbs, grills, or unattached enclosures, can be thrown, damaging your air conditioning unit. 

For a full air conditioning inspection and safety check, call Service Experts Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing today and we’ll make sure your air conditioning unit is operating safely and efficiently. Help keep your family safe during storm season and make sure to follow these guidelines if your city is under a serious storm warning.