Condensation not draining from A/C
 

I have a question. The other day, I went into my basement, and found
water all over my floor. After doing some detective work, I figured
out that all of the water condensing from my A/C unit wasn't draining
to the primary PVC tube coming from the front of my unit. There is a
cap a few feet away from the unit near the elbow, so I looked in there.

There was water just laying in the tube so obviously, it's not
drainig. I purchased a snake, and ran it into the tube, and waited a
few days to see if it helped. It did not. The tube runs right into the

concrete floor in my basement (we don't have a floating basement). So,

for right now, I pulled the plug where the secondary drain would be,
and I have it draining into a bucket.


Before I call (translation: PAY) someone to come out, does anyone have
any other ideas was to what I can try? Thank you!!

Pour bleach into the drain line to kill the slime buildup.


wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a question. The other day, I went into my basement, and found
water all over my floor. After doing some detective work, I figured
out that all of the water condensing from my A/C unit wasn't draining
to the primary PVC tube coming from the front of my unit. There is a
cap a few feet away from the unit near the elbow, so I looked in there.

There was water just laying in the tube so obviously, it's not
drainig. I purchased a snake, and ran it into the tube, and waited a
few days to see if it helped. It did not. The tube runs right into the

concrete floor in my basement (we don't have a floating basement). So,

for right now, I pulled the plug where the secondary drain would be,
and I have it draining into a bucket.


Before I call (translation: PAY) someone to come out, does anyone have
any other ideas was to what I can try? Thank you!!

Thanks, I will give that a shot. But, since the water is just laying
in the tube, how will the bleach work it's way down to my drain? When
the technician installed our system (the house is only 3 years old),
they didn't put any downward angles into the drain. There are 4 right
angles, and a trap. I can see into the top of the trap, so that's
where I'll put the water.

wrote:
Before I call (translation: PAY) someone to come out, does anyone have
any other ideas was to what I can try?

You need to blow the drain line out to remove the bioslime that is
clogging it. There are a number of ways to do this. The link below will
give you some ideas.

http://toad.net/~jsmeenen/drain.html

I've had success with connecting a water hose (even hand tight) at the
drain where it leaves the air handler, then gently turning on the water
to force the slime out of the line. You can even try connecting the
hose to the OUTLET of the drain and force some water up the line to
break the slime loose. But be careful or you'll end up with water
everywhere if you are too enthusiastic.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a question. The other day, I went into my basement, and found
water all over my floor. After doing some detective work, I figured
out that all of the water condensing from my A/C unit wasn't draining
to the primary PVC tube coming from the front of my unit. There is a
cap a few feet away from the unit near the elbow, so I looked in there.

There was water just laying in the tube so obviously, it's not
drainig. I purchased a snake, and ran it into the tube, and waited a
few days to see if it helped. It did not. The tube runs right into the

concrete floor in my basement (we don't have a floating basement). So,

for right now, I pulled the plug where the secondary drain would be,
and I have it draining into a bucket.


Before I call (translation: PAY) someone to come out, does anyone have
any other ideas was to what I can try? Thank you!!


If your line is clear then the problem is probly that you don't have a
proper condensate trap installed at the air handler unit.

Right now, your bucket is acting as a trap....note that if you start with a
completely empty bucket there will be vacuum at drain the tube and so the
unit won't actually begin draining properly until the unit cycles one (or
more) times.

This is because your condensate collects in an area that is at a negative
pressure compared to atmospheric ( the area between the evap coil and the
fan )

A proper setup works kinda like the air-locks that home-brewers use, except
that your pressures are reversed.

HTH

--

SVL

i have to flush my ac drain out with a water hose every few
years.sometimes that drain pan under the evaporator (thats the part that
gets cold) rusts or gets lint in it to so i vacume it and hose it also..
lucas

I would like to try to suck the clog out, if that's the problem...but I
don't have access to the other end, it goes into my concrete floor.

At this point, I think I will try cutting the pipe just above the
floor, and making sure it's clear until that point. If so, I'll see if
I can fish a snake down into the floor, and see if its clogged down
there. If it isn't -- or if I can't tell -- how would I go about
creating a proper condensate trap? Should it be a closed loop, to
create a vacuum? If not, how would the water get around the turns and
past the trap in the PVC?

Thanks again for everyones help!

wrote in message
...
i have to flush my ac drain out with a water hose every few
years.sometimes that drain pan under the evaporator (thats the part that
gets cold) rusts or gets lint in it to so i vacume it and hose it also..
lucas


Lots of good answers--The first time mine clogged and I had water all over
the floor and I fixed it the hard way. Flushed the drain line with a garden
hose from the outside. It cleaned the drains system out but as you can
guess, water everywhere. After that, yearly, at the beginning of the AC
season for us, I mix a solution of water and bleach (1 gal) and run it into
the evaporator pan. No drain problems since I started doing this. This
mixture will open up a clogged system too.
MLD

In article . com,
wrote:

Thanks, I will give that a shot. But, since the water is just laying
in the tube, how will the bleach work it's way down to my drain? When
the technician installed our system (the house is only 3 years old),
they didn't put any downward angles into the drain. There are 4 right
angles, and a trap. I can see into the top of the trap, so that's
where I'll put the water.


I had a similiar problem, too many right angles and some upward slopes.
I tore out the complete drain line and put in a straight pipe with lots
of slope, and put in a cross between the air handler and the trap. You
have to plug the unused ports, but it's EZ to run a fish tape down the
trap or to look up inside the air handler drain & clean it.

--
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