Did you know that your HVAC can automatically shut off once it detects a clogged drain in its system? Water emergency switches, more popularly known as an AC float switch, can do just that. It’s great for avoiding water damage in your home caused by clogged AC drains.

In this quick article, we’ll explain further what water emergency switches are. We’ll also take a look at how your AC collects water, why drain problems happen, and how AC float switches help prevent drain problem scenarios.

An Overview of How HVAC Drainages Work

Your air conditioner does much more than cool your indoor air temperature. It also dehumidifies your home’s circulating air. The moisture your AC removes turns into water and gets collected in a drainage pan just beneath the HVAC’s evaporator coil.

Now, your AC’s drainage pan is ideally connected to a plumbing system, usually in your bathroom’s sink or any similar area in your home. That is where all the water from the drainage pan goes. Your AC’s drainage pan then fills up again with moisture turned into the water as it continues cooling your home and dehumidifying the air at the same time.

Drainage pans can quickly fill with water, so lots of HVAC systems have a second pan beneath the first in case clogging and water overflowing happens.