Turn the system off at the thermostat, put a towel down, and call us — a licensed tech will diagnose the leak the same day, usually within a few hours, before it turns into ceiling or floor damage.
Licensed & insured Florida HVAC contractor (FL Lic. CAC1821934). Serving St. Petersburg and all of Pinellas County.
Use this to decide whether to shut the system off and call now, or book a scheduled visit.
After thousands of leak calls across Pinellas County, four causes account for the vast majority of what we find.
This is the #1 cause in St. Petersburg — and it's more common here than in drier climates for a real reason. Your AC pulls dozens of gallons of moisture out of the humid Gulf air every week, and that water carries dust, salt aerosols from coastal air, and biofilm into a narrow PVC drain line. The line grows an algae-and-slime plug, water backs up into the pan, and either the float switch trips or the pan overflows. A tech clears the line with a nitrogen purge or wet/dry vacuum, flushes it with a treatment, and confirms the trap and vent are correctly configured so it drains fully.
If airflow across the indoor coil drops — dirty filter, collapsed flex duct, blower issue — or if refrigerant is low, the coil drops below freezing and builds a block of ice. When you shut the system off (or it cycles), that ice melts all at once and dumps far more water than the drain pan is designed to handle, so it overflows. The fix is diagnosing why the coil froze: filter change, blower repair, duct correction, or a proper refrigerant leak search and repair — not just adding refrigerant.
Older air handlers (10+ years) commonly develop rust-through in the metal secondary pan, or hairline cracks in the plastic primary pan. Once the pan can't hold water, every gallon of condensate goes onto whatever's below the unit — usually attic insulation or a closet floor. A tech confirms it with a dye test, then replaces the pan; on badly corroded systems the honest recommendation is often to replace the air handler rather than patch a failing pan.
In closets, attics, or garage installs where the drain can't run downhill by gravity, a small condensate pump lifts the water to a drain. When its float sticks, its check valve fails, or its discharge tubing clogs, water backs up into the reservoir and overflows in minutes. The tech tests the pump under load, cleans or replaces it, and verifies the safety switch will cut the AC before the pump overflows next time.
If the water is dripping from a wall-mounted mini-split head — not from an air handler in a closet or attic — the diagnosis is different. Mini-splits typically leak because a dirty filter or blocked coil face has iced the indoor coil, because the internal drain pan under the head has cracked, or because the small drain hose behind the wall has kinked, sagged, or backed up with algae. These systems don't have the same accessible drain lines as central AC, so clearing them requires pulling the head off the wall bracket.
We service mini-splits the same day. Call (727) 222-0237 and mention it's a ductless system so the tech arrives with the right pump, fittings, and pan liners.
Three real consequences, in the order they usually show up:
It can be. Water pooling near an electrical panel, air handler, or outlet is a shock and fire risk — kill power at the breaker and call for service. Water on drywall, ceilings, or laminate flooring for more than a few hours starts feeding mold. If the leak is a slow drip into a properly draining pan and the float switch has shut the system down safely, it's not immediately dangerous, but the underlying cause still needs to be fixed before you turn it back on.
Because your AC only produces significant condensate when it's running hard against high humidity — which in St. Petersburg is May through October. A partially clogged drain line can move enough water in mild weather to keep up, but once the system runs 12+ hours a day pulling humidity out of the air, the clog overflows the pan. That's why a leak that seems to appear overnight almost always has a cause that's been building for months.
Sometimes. If you're comfortable, you can shut the system off, locate the condensate drain line where it exits the house, and use a wet/dry vacuum on the outdoor end to pull the clog. That solves maybe a third of leaks. It won't help if the drain pan is cracked, the coil is frozen, the condensate pump has failed, or the clog is upstream of the trap. If the vacuum trick doesn't restore drainage in 10 minutes, stop and call — running a leaking system risks water damage and can burn out the compressor.
Same day in most cases. Call (727) 222-0237 and a live dispatcher will give you a real arrival window — not a four-hour block. For active leaks that are dripping onto flooring or ceilings, we prioritize the call and typically arrive within a few hours anywhere in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.
St. Petersburg sits on a narrow peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf. That geography means your AC runs against 70–85% relative humidity for eight months of the year, so your system produces far more condensate than an inland Florida home — let alone a system in Atlanta or Charlotte. Coastal salt aerosols also accelerate the algae and biofilm growth inside PVC drain lines, which is why a line that would go five years without service in a drier climate needs a flush every 12–18 months here.
Our techs live and work in Pinellas County. We know which subdivisions have attic air handlers that flood ceilings when a drain clogs, which condo builds hide their condensate pumps behind sealed closets, and which older neighborhoods still have the original 3/4" PVC drains that were undersized for modern high-efficiency systems.
Related pages: AC repair in St. Petersburg, AC repair in Clearwater, AC repair in Seminole, preventive AC maintenance & tune-ups, and 24-hour emergency AC repair.
One call, live dispatcher, same-day arrival. Written quote before any work.