We bought two brand new, identical AC units the week before opening. The problem is, one of them leaks like crazy - to the point of soaking an entire towel and forming a puddle in the carpet underneath in about 3 hours. But it only leaks at random; the last few days it hadn't been bad enough to keep changing the towels under it until last night. The operation manual says that it will leak sometimes due to humidity, but the other unit hasn't leaked a drop. Does anyone know what's wrong with it? (It's the Admiral model from Wal-Mart).

Make SURE that the unit isn't slanting INTO the house. If it is, it will leak into the house instead of draining outside like it should...

(Assuming these are window units)

EDIT:: You might also want to check out the other one, see where the water comes out at, and make sure that there is no obstruction in the same place on this one...

I thought you meant the AC was leaking. The only "fluid" in an AC unit is R22 refrigerant, and I am guessing that isn't your problem.

As for the actual problem, Missouri has really high humidity, and the condenser collects alot of condensation on the outside from the cold, depressurized R22 inside it. The bottom of the AC unit is designed with this in mind, and there should be some sort of built-in slope towards an outlet. The outlet will either be a hose attached to a collecting funnel, or just the bottom plate with grooves towards a hole near a corner or the back edge. Yours should have a similar design, make sure that there is not anything obstructing the drain, whether it is a hose, a hole, or just an open corner.

Since this setup is also mildly dependent on gravity, take jthxv's suggestion into account too.

Do I have to take it apart to find an obstruction?

I've been jamming towels under this window unit since we got it and it drenched our laundry; I would assume that having that under the front would angle it so that it would drain outside, but this doesn't seem to be the case. We did notice that it quit for a minute when we manually propped it up but I don't know how to get it to stay.

You should just make sure that it is dripping outside before doing anything drastic like taking it apart...

Also, make sure there isn't a pretty big air leak right underneath it. If there is, I would assume that the hot humid air coming in from the outside could cause condensate to form as it is cooled by the cool metal on the air conditioner and is not able to hold as much moisture. This can then drip down off of the A/C onto the floor...

Can you tell where the water is coming from?

Is the AC unit freezing? I had one where if you left it on the "cold" setting too long, ice would start to form causing a giant leak all over the floor. Try leaving it on the 'fan' setting at night when it's less warm outside or whenever you notice that it's starting to leak.

It has been known to collect ice and it does seem to leak less when I keep it so that the fan interchanges with the actual AC more often... with the exception of a few nights ago.

I propped it up with a book (rather than a towel which will compress) last night and it seemed to do just fine - let's hope that's all there is to it. Thanks for the help guys!

its from walmart....... take it back. or don't use A/C... its not hot enough anymore

We threw away the box - otherwise I definitely would have done that. And we've been using the fan more often but it doesn't pull in the extra-cold air that I would like it to.

you don't need a box to exchange items at walmart for new items.

no kidding.... don't even need a receipt. but if you have the receipt all the better