Advice on air handler issue
Hi folks
Need some advice , obviously I know you cannot diagnose from afar , just need some ideas to know if my AC guy is incompetent or taking me for a ride.
I have a Carrier air handler model FXM4X6000AL, installed vertically in the garage. Over the last few years , I’ve had ongoing recurring issues .
Every two years or so, I’ll notice water seeping from the baseboard which is directly underneath the handler. When this happens , I’ll remove the filter, to discover it’s soaking wet from the coils dripping down onto it instead of running down the drain line . The drain line itself is rarely blocked , I’ve cleared the occasional blockage myself. When the HVAC guy would come out , he would vacuum out the track where the water is supposed to flow from coils to drain line , removing a lot of gunk and funk that built up , and it would function normally again. Last time they cleaned it , it went two years with no issues.
Two months ago I started noticing a tiny seepage and immediately called before it had a chance to get bad, he cleaned it out , also ran some heavy duty cleaner through the drain line just in case , but can’t come up with any reason why it keeps doing what it’s doing. He threw out a guess of “maybe your air handler was installed not fully level”, but he put a level on it and neither of us saw any noticeable cant.
Here we are two months later and I see water seepage again .
So…. Granted I live in Florida , and these problems only occur during the hottest months of the year , and it’s been consistently 90-93° with high humidity. I keep my AC at 76 during the day , 75 at night , unless the air temperature outside drops lower than that due to a storm.
I change my filter every 3-4 months , use quality filters , and this one had been changed the day after the tech came two months ago.
My handler is under warranty for two more years for coils and parts.
So…… is this “normal” for Florida in these temperatures? Is the amount of condensation being produced when it’s extremely hot and humid NEVER going to be able to be handled by the pan and drain line , and going to “sweat” off the coils and drip onto the filter below? Or is this something you’ve seen and diagnosed before as some form of malfunction, signs of coils going bad , something ??
I’m at my wits end dealing with this , and half tempted to just get a new handler altogether, if it weren’t for the nagging worry that the new one could do the same thing and I’ve wasted money.
Any ideas ? Anything is appreciated
Posted Sep 6, 2026, 3:27 AM UTC