Water continues flowing to air con after shutdown. Advice needed.

[nomad]

Hi all.
Hope you had a great Christmas, & I wish you all the best for 2008.

The house I bought earlier in the year has ducted evaporative air con installed in the roof with the cooling box tower sticking up above the back section of roof. It has "Smallaire" on the controller so I presume that is the make of it.

It's been hot enough to use it this week, & I'm needing some thoughts on a concern I have with it.

I noticed yesterday about an hour & half after turning it off (both fan & pump) that water was still flowing up the pipe to it from the mains. I only found out because I bent over to pick something up from behind the water tank & my ear was very close to the pipe.

Luckily the pipe has a tap on it, so I turned it off.

I've not had one of these before, so any ideas why it is doing this? I doubt very much it should do this.

I've just turned the fan off but left the pump on, stuck my head into the roof cavity & could hear the pump quietly running. Got down & turned the pump off also, went back up & it was all quiet, so the pump is definately turning off by the switch. Also checked this by turning everything off, & the electricity meter wheel was not moving. While I had all the electrical stuff turned off, I went & checked the pipe, & there was water running up it to the tower box.

Also, although the tower has a small diameter drain hose from it, water also comes out of the box somewhere at the back & runs down the back roof into the gutter. Any ideas on that? I noticed that when I found the water still running up the pipe yesterday, so I presume that is only what has gone up the pipe & is now coming back down again.

[Brickie]

Sounds like the float valve is sticking, we had ours dripping for ages as it overflowed and we waited for the man to come, it needed a new seal to fix it.

[DJ’s Timber]

[nomad]

Thanks guys. This sticky float valve thing. Is that something I could do myself?

[Brickie]

Seeing a how your in Charlton you may have to.

And yes, its just a rubber seal thing.
Get on the roof, not today mind.... and see where the float is attached, thats where the seal will be, with any luck it may just need cleaning.

[Barry_White]

If you know how to fix a leaking toilet cistern you will be able to fix the Air Con.

[nomad]

You're right there, Brickie. It's 42 out there at the moment & probably 50+ on the roof, so I'm definately staying in here.

No worries, Barry. Thanks. Yep, I've fixed a few leaking cisterns in the past so I know what the go is.

[Smurf]

If you're going up on the roof and removing the covers etc then it would be a good idea to clean the unit out while you're there. They can accumulate quite a bit of muck from the air etc.

Just remember to turn the power off completely (preferably at the switchboard) before messing around. Water and electricity...