Home air conditioning question

First of all, I do not have any AC knowledge so I wanted to ask on here in case somebody can help me. I have a central air conditioning unit in my upstairs attic. After about an hour of operation, it begins to leak from the base of the machine. It eventually ran enough water down through my downstairs ceiling and messed up some drywall. I fixed the drywall but I need to know what options I have to keep the machine from leaking before I start running it again. Its starting to get real hot around hear and I'll fricken die if without this AC.

Thanks in advance.

They have a drain pipe. Yours is clogged. Or if it uses a condensate pump, it is bad or blocked up.

I assume this just started?

Jeremy

Yep, there should be a drain on the bottom of the coil that runs to a condensate pump which is a basic lift pump with a float switch that will pump to daylight. More than likely you have a gravity feed drain that extends to one of the eaves or gable ends and elbows down and drips down the side of your house. Leak would mean, clogged drain, broken lift pump, broken pipe, or frozen coil from improper charge, txv, or restricted airflow from the fan thru the coil.

This started last year, had it off after the leak up until now. Im up in the attic taking pictures. I'll post em soon. Looks like a clear drain plug, a heavy padded tube, thats warm when the AC is on, and a small brass tube that is cool when the AC is on. So im assuming the drain plug was messed up cuz it was coiled OVER the AC instead of flowing downward. going to check again soon and see if it is still leaking.

What Jeremy said. You are supposed to run bleach through the drain pipe every year to make sure no mold or other debris can clog it up. Once it's clogged, it can be a pain to unclog it.