On Thursday, March 23, 2017 at 11:51:21 AM UTC-5, Muggles wrote:
On 3/23/2017 11:14 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:40:11 -0500, Muggles

Asking for advice and help with a home project is totally 'on topic'
here, and even if I don't know how to do everything other people can do,
at least I try to build something that is designed to meet the need I'm
asking about.

You're no help at all.

The condensate pump is NOt put inside the unit. It is put in the
drain pan so you don't need to empty it, or in many cases just
connected to the drain. It has a small reservoir, and when it gets
full it starts the pump. When it gets empty it shuts the pump off.
They are used extensively on furnace mounter AC units and on
condensing furnaces.

OK I understand what you're describing, now.

This is the problem with this particular machine: The reservoir is at
the upper portion of this AC, and it has a hole in the back of it where
I can and have attached a hose to drain that into a large container. I
could drain it outside if I could find a way to run the hose outside
without drilling a hole in the house. We just don't want to do that
right now. Maybe we will in the future, but the reservoir never backs
up and is always freely draining, so that fluid isn't dripping into the
bottom pan.

That aside, the second problem is when humidity is high, the machine
produces excess condensation that drips into a pan that is at the bottom
of the machine, but has no drainage holes. I'm guessing it's generally
meant to catch sweat that drains from the sides below the main
collection reservoir and is supposed to just evaporate. BUT, our high
humidity in the summer ends up producing too much water for that bottom
pan and it runs over onto the floor.

Initially, just sitting the AC on a plastic lid that could catch that
bottom pan water that overflows worked fine. It would usually
evaporate, but our humidity got worse producing more than the plastic
bottom pan I used could handle, and I'd have to soak up the excess with
towels which got old pretty quick.

The main reservoir isn't really a problem. It's the fluid that overflows
from the bottom of the machine, and there's no access hole to hook up a
tube to even connect a pump too. So, he only thing I could think of for
that bottom pan issue was to make a platform for the AC where the bottom
pan could drain into a large container that could be easily emptied if
it got too full and didn't evaporate quickly enough. That was all I
could come up with on my own to solve the problem until I could figure
out a better solution.

So... I could put a pump to drain the bottom pan outside, but I really
need a better design than what I came up with that includes a pump (that
isn't loud when it kicks in) with the design if I'm going to do that.
I'm not even sure how to go about designing it. I'm open to ideas,
though.
--
Maggie


If you can open the cover where the filter goes and you can see the evaporator which is the aluminum finned part that feels cold when the AC is running, you should look for dirt buildup. When there is dirt buildup around the area where the evaporator drains into the drain pan, water will overflow the sides of the pan and wind up dripping out in the wrong place. You might try rolling the unit outdoors, getting some HVAC spray cleaner from Lowe's Depot, spray the evaporator with the cleaner, let it soak in then hose the unit out. Careful with the garden hose when you rinse the aluminum fins, the pencil thin stream of water from the sprayer can bend the aluminum fins of the evaporator. A fan spray of water from the spray handle works best. ヽ(ヅ)ノ

https://www.lowes.com/pd/WEB-Cleans-...ils/1000024695

http://www.homedepot.com/p/AC-Safe-A...-921/206740351

https://www.amazon.com/CRC-Foaming-C.../dp/B009YO1FFM

[8~{} Uncle Dirty Monster