The Home Improvement Thread

Rev

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That sounds like you have everything under control. I would suggest keeping some kind of ant poison by the units outside. That is the main thing that I have ran into. They like to short them out.
 

L.T. Fan

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Question for anyone with air conditioner/HVAC experience.

I bought my home in May and moved into the home in June. I have a two system HVAC unit located in my attic and two outside condensers on one side of the house. On the opposite side of the house I have a couple of PVC pipes for a/c condensation drainage.

There is a steady drip of water coming from the pipes. One drips a little more than the other. Typically I would consider this normal because I know one of the functions of an air conditioner is to pull moisture from the house. But my concern is that the ground is very marshy on the side of the house......like walking on a wet sponge of a yard. I don't know what's considered "normal" as far as drainage is concerned.

As far as I can tell the a/c drain lines aren't clogged. I've used a wet vac to attempt to suck out any obstructions but nothing comes out of the pipes except a very small amount of water. I've poured vinegar into the upstairs drain lines to kill any algae that may be obstructing the lines. I change my filters regularly as well.

So far the unit works fine and isn't giving me any problems. I'm just trying to identify potential problems before it becomes a major problem.

Any thoughts?
Since you can see these drain lines I am inclined to think they are secondary drains that are in play if the primary drains are clogged. I have a dual system with two compressors, two condenser/blower units. The blower units are in the attic and plumbed to an in house drain like a sink line that goes out the main sink drains. If the primary a/c drains get clogged the condensation goes into a drain pan below the blower unit and drains to an exterior line that is visible from the outside of the house.

I would have an a/c person check the primary drains and they have a cartridge gun that will pressure blast the build up in the lines if they are affected.

You shouldn’t see the exterior drains leaking because that is probably an indication the primary lines are clogged.
 

L.T. Fan

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You can see the secondary drain pans if you go into the attic. If they have water in then or signs os water during the operation then the primary drains are clogged.
 

1bigfan13

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Since you can see these drain lines I am inclined to think they are secondary drains that are in play if the primary drains are clogged. I have a dual system with two compressors, two condenser/blower units. The blower units are in the attic and plumbed to an in house drain like a sink line that goes out the main sink drains. If the primary a/c drains get clogged the condensation goes into a drain pan below the blower unit and drains to an exterior line that is visible from the outside of the house.

I would have an a/c person check the primary drains and they have a cartridge gun that will pressure blast the build up in the lines if they are affected.

You shouldn’t see the exterior drains leaking because that is probably an indication the primary lines are clogged.
Thanks for the feedback. I've checked upstairs a couple of times and I don't have have any water standing in the upstairs overflow pans.

I wanted to connect my wet vac to the main drain line but couldn't find it. A few weeks ago I checked underneath all the bathroom and kitchen sinks and didn't see it.
 

Sheik

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If it were me, just to avoid any potential foundation issues, I’d find a way to route that line(s) to a rain gutter or even a “rain barrel”.

I almost posted about the unit potentially freezing over and causing the overflow pan to drain excessively, but my phone died before I finished typing my post.
 

UncleMilti

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Thanks for the feedback. I've checked upstairs a couple of times and I don't have have any water standing in the upstairs overflow pans.

I wanted to connect my wet vac to the main drain line but couldn't find it. A few weeks ago I checked underneath all the bathroom and kitchen sinks and didn't see it.
If the pans are dry, you should be good to go. I would make sure you have 2 electronic floats on the pans to shut down the units if you live in a hot/humid area. I've seen single electronic floats fail, and flood a whole house. Its cheap, cheap insurance to run 2 on the pans.
 

skidadl

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If the pans are dry, you should be good to go. I would make sure you have 2 electronic floats on the pans to shut down the units if you live in a hot/humid area. I've seen single electronic floats fail, and flood a whole house. Its cheap, cheap insurance to run 2 on the pans.
What's wrong if he floods his house like this?I see no problem at all.

 

skidadl

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^Seriously, this how I make my living.

Word of advice: Replace the supply lines to your toilets, sinks and ice maker lines. When those sumbiches break I can easily make 15K off of it. I can't tell you how many 50k plus losses that I've repaired over simple stuff like that. There are 690 water damage claims per month in Bexar county TX. Per month.
 

L.T. Fan

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Thanks for the feedback. I've checked upstairs a couple of times and I don't have have any water standing in the upstairs overflow pans.

I wanted to connect my wet vac to the main drain line but couldn't find it. A few weeks ago I checked underneath all the bathroom and kitchen sinks and didn't see it.
It’s strange you can’t find another drain line. In our area it it required to have a primary and secondary line. My primary lines have a vent access to clean the line if needed. It comes out the side of the condenser and goes down the wall to the bathroom sinks. The access is just a little stand pipe sticking up and has a removable cap like most clean out configurations. I haven’t seen a primary drain flowing outdoors in a long time. You might check with your city code to see how the standard is. Around our area if the drain line drips outside that means trouble.
 

mcnuttz

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It's pretty normal around here to just have the one drain line for each inside unit.

We have three systems on our house and they all drain at different speeds.

I'd be more concerned with the spongy yard. Definitely need to find a way to divert the runoff from your foundation.
 

L.T. Fan

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It's pretty normal around here to just have the one drain line for each inside unit.

We have three systems on our house and they all drain at different speeds.

I'd be more concerned with the spongy yard. Definitely need to find a way to divert the runoff from your foundation.
Do you have an overflow pan on your system? If you do then the initial flow goes to the drain pan then continues to wherever it exits the house.

Maybe you have a primary that goes elsewhere. There should be a drain coming out of the condenser and doesn’t go back to flow in the drain pan. I haven’t seen a primary drain dump to the drain pan. I guess though there are lots of things i haven’t seen.

Still the drain shouldn’t go outside as the initial function. That defeats the purpose of a pan
 

mcnuttz

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Do you have an overflow pan on your system? If you do then the initial flow goes to the drain pan then continues to wherever it exits the house.

Maybe you have a primary that goes elsewhere. There should be a drain coming out of the condenser and doesn’t go back to flow in the drain pan. I haven’t seen a primary drain dump to the drain pan. I guess though there are lots of things i haven’t seen.

Still the drain shouldn’t go outside as the initial function. That defeats the purpose of a pan
The initial drain goes outside, and the pan is used as overflow.

As UncleMilti mentioned, there is a floating switch in the pan that will kick the unit off in case of emergency.
 

L.T. Fan

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The initial drain goes outside, and the pan is used as overflow.

As UncleMilti mentioned, there is a floating switch in the pan that will kick the unit off in case of emergency.
It’s different design and engineering apparently. The pan system here only comes into play if the primary line gets clogged. For that contingency the condenser enclosure gets full and spills over into a pan below and out through a line to the outside. The outside line doesn’t become a drain unless the primary gets clogged. Difference in geography technology I guess. There isn’t a shutoff system since the overflow pan evacuates the system.
 

1bigfan13

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If the pans are dry, you should be good to go. I would make sure you have 2 electronic floats on the pans to shut down the units if you live in a hot/humid area. I've seen single electronic floats fail, and flood a whole house. Its cheap, cheap insurance to run 2 on the pans.
Yeah, I have a couple of aqua guards attached to each pan, so I'm good there.
 

1bigfan13

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I found the source of my problem. Turns out one of the valves is leaking in my sprinkler control box.

I was about to head out to Home Depot to purchase some PVC pipe to re-route the small amount of water dripping from the A/C condensation pipes. Just as I was about to leave the house I decided to check the irrigation control box because it struck me that I hadn't looked in there yet to see if that could be causing the excessive sogginess on the side of the house. I opened up the box and it was completely flooded with water.

I vacuumed out the water and ran my sprinklers and some of the water came back. I vacuumed it out again and turned my sprinkler system off for a few days and when I checked the side of the yard where the grass was usually really wet and soggy, it was bone dry.

Now I just need to call someone out to find and fix the leak. I'm just glad I was finally able to positively ID the problem.
 

skidadl

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I found the source of my problem. Turns out one of the valves is leaking in my sprinkler control box.

I was about to head out to Home Depot to purchase some PVC pipe to re-route the small amount of water dripping from the A/C condensation pipes. Just as I was about to leave the house I decided to check the irrigation control box because it struck me that I hadn't looked in there yet to see if that could be causing the excessive sogginess on the side of the house. I opened up the box and it was completely flooded with water.

I vacuumed out the water and ran my sprinklers and some of the water came back. I vacuumed it out again and turned my sprinkler system off for a few days and when I checked the side of the yard where the grass was usually really wet and soggy, it was bone dry.

Now I just need to call someone out to find and fix the leak. I'm just glad I was finally able to positively ID the problem.
Investigation complete!
 
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