AC leak with clear drain line

[s1000pre]

I have water leaking from the seams inside my trailer. Not the ceiling, the wall seam in my kitchen area directly down line from the ac unit. The drain line is clear and draining. I removed the cover, the evaporative’s drain pan was clear, though there seamed to be excess water on top of the evaporative coil plastic cover (between the plastic cover and foam). We had heavy rain 15 hours prior to leak. The ceiling vent directly in-line with the leak has droplets of water on the vent. Inside humidity is 48-50. Four family members took showers a couple hours prior to noticing the drips. Thoughts?

[BayouBiker]

Water leaks unfortunately are quite difficult to trace. Gravity and trailer geometry conspires against us so the water exit point can be many feet away from the spot it first enters.

You definitely want to find and fix the leak soon, as long term water damage is nothing to trifle with.

Lot's of threads on how to best trace the source of a leak. Search for ideas if you like, I'll provide a summary of what I like to do.

1. Wait for a dry day, ensure no noticeable water in the trailer.

2. confirm it is not the AC condensate pan and drain by carefully pouring water into the pan for 15 min or more. If it is humid you could instead or in addition run the air conditioner with the trailer windows and door open and a space heater on if needed. confirm a steady stream of condensate out the drain by the street side wheel well.

No sign of water? Check the shower visually for cracks at or higher in elevation from the seam where the water emerged. Very very unlikely but it's worth eliminating.

3. Using a level on the inside ceiling and wall trace a likely "path of least resistance" for water to flow on the inside of the aluminum sheet. Consider aluminum rib locations using the rivet locations. Water is likely to follow ribs due to capillary action.

4. Using that information create a triangle of likely leak area from the point where the water emerges to possible sources of the entry point.

5. Get up on the roof (search for threads on how to do it safely)

6. Use painters tape to tape every rivet and seam in the path. create a dam around the AC if it is in the triangle so water runs off the cover and away from the AC seams underneath. If a tank vent or air vent or sky light is in the path cover them completely as well. The tank vents and internal pipes are notorious for leaks so you don't want any water entering them at this stage.

7. Get out a sprinkler or spray hose and water the area you taped for 30-60 min

8. No leak? Spray the entire trailer. Still no leak? Great you taped over it.

9. Now untape places likely to be the source. Start with tank vents then skylight and air vents. Then AC. Spray the trailer for 30-60 min each time you untape.

10. Finally seams and rivets.

this method takes time but it works. If you run out of time on one day no biggie cuz if you have the leak tapped over then no leak so it can keep a week or so. Don't leave the tape on for more than a couple weeks or you will have a sticky mess to remove. Just take off the old tape after a week and add new.

Edit: if you have a leak after taping you need to tape more. Press on the seams inside the trailer to encourage capillary action to expose if that seam is wet inside at that location. This greatly helps tracing the path.

I also use a wired camera to confirm leaks once I have narrowed down the location, they work well and are very inexpensive these days.

Finally this is tedious so you can imagine how expensive it can be to take it in. If you have a warranty, you can take it in, but I would try to find it first because you will eventually need to learn these tricks.

[TRIPPPIN]

Originally Posted by s1000pre

I have water leaking from the seams inside my trailer. Not the ceiling, the wall seam in my kitchen area directly down line from the ac unit. The drain line is clear and draining. I removed the cover, the evaporative’s drain pan was clear, though there seamed to be excess water on top of the evaporative coil plastic cover (between the plastic cover and foam). We had heavy rain 15 hours prior to leak. The ceiling vent directly in-line with the leak has droplets of water on the vent. Inside humidity is 48-50. Four family members took showers a couple hours prior to noticing the drips. Thoughts?

Here is a possibility. I had a leak like that and it was water coming in the range hood vent from the outside. I used aluminum duct tape and sealed the gaps behind the outside vent cover. It is important while travelling to secure the vent door flap and to open it when you use it to avoid condensation getting trapped between the wall
above the stove area and leaking onto the wall seam.

[TrvlngTinTin]

I have never tried this but read on another thread?
Use a large shop vac and rig it so your blowing air into the trailer.
Maybe painters tape? and cardboard?Give it a bubble bath?
Maybe 2 shop vacs!
Pain
Good Luck

[Mark of SJC]

You’ve received a lot of excellent advise already!

We had a similar leak occur in our bathroom. At first I was convinced it was the vent cover for the exhaust fan (it was not only cracked, but a chunk was missing from it). Plumbers putty is your friend!

But that wasn’t it!

Turns out the skylight (which is shockingly flimsy) had failed and was allowing water to enter from the top. Our “emergency fix” was just to throw a roll of plastic sheeting over the top (there wasn’t any wind to deal with).

Also, an easy check for your AC condensate lines (from the INSIDE) is just remove the screws on the ceiling where your return grill is - you can see the line right there (and you’ll be shocked at how much dirt is caked on that vent screen too!!!)