My house has had a history of stupid water mishaps in the basement over the years.
The latest?
The condensation pipe on my heat pump clogged up and unbeknownst to me was overflowing onto the floor inside the ductwork, seeping out underneath and dampening the carpet outside the heat pump closet. I discovered it when I heard a weird dripping noise.
So the root problem has been fixed; the pipe works right again. But there were several gallons of water inside the bottom of the ductwork underneath the unit. I got a cheap shop vac and sucked it all out, then used the vac in blow mode to dry up some of the floor. I have fans running now try to dry up some of the carpet, but likely it will need to be replaced in the next few days, and probably some of the baseboard molding along with it. All because I'm too stupid to check up on things more often.
The A/C has been working fine all along and it's a fairly young unit, so I didn't think about it.
That's the bad news.
The good news is I've discovered that shop vacs can really move some freaking water! I removed the air filter, switched it on, and stuck the hose into the water, and within about 5 seconds the vacuum cleaner was filled with several gallons of water. It happened so fast I thought the vac was defective; a float valve protects the motor when the unit is full so it stopped suctioning, but when I opened it up I was amazed at how much water had just got sucked in. A few trips out the back door to dump the water and that was it.
Reminds me of the explanation of how fast a Saturn V F1 turbopump can empty an Olympic swimming pool, something like 15 seconds IIRC.
Now if I can just hook my shop vac up to a rocket engine...