AC's drain pan won't drain.
EastCoastGuyz
won't drain. I discovered the problem when I saw water dripping from the
ceiling. I had a service guy come out and look at it and he showed me
how the drain pan is full of water. He used C02 two times in an
unsuccessful attempt to unclog it. He told me the unit is rusted and I
should just replace the entire AC system inside and out. Other than this
problem, the unit cools the house fine.
He said the labor costs to move the unit just to install a new pan
doesn't make sense considering the age of the unit. Is there another
solution? I'm confused why this can't be unclogged, the only reason I
got was because it is rusted. What about adding an additional drain if
this one can't be unclogged? Is that sort of thing done? Thanks!
TURTLE
"EastCoastGuyz" <EastCo...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3CDF6784...@hotmail.com...
This is Turtle.
If it is only the Drain Clogged and not a hole in the pan it'self. You just
need to unclog the drain or replace the drain line and drain it. A clogged
up drain line was never a reason to replace a system.
Now if the HVAC man can't unstop it. Well call a plumber and he will run new
line or clean it out. Run a new line but this is not major thinking here.
Now if he installs a new system. He is still going to have to unclog the
drain for the new system to drain also.
TURTLE
Rfofaky
>how the drain pan is full of water.
If the drain pan is full of water, than it is not rusted out. If was rusted
out, there would be hardly any water in it. If this guy can't fix a simple
problem like this, then I would call someone else.
Worst case scenario would be installing a new drain line. You could probaly
even do that yourself.
Jodysdee
frains so it shuts system down before you ruin ceiling..?? Jody
TURTLE
"Jodysdee" <jody...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020515102722...@mb-cq.aol.com...
> No expert here...but cant you install a cut off switch to avoid clogged
pan
> frains so it shuts system down before you ruin ceiling..?? Jody
This is Turtle.
Done all the time.
TURTLE
bridge
if he cant blow the drain out, call a plumber to (a) clear the drain
and (b) check the trap.
if it's not the drain, it is possible that the pan is filling up
because there is no trap in the drain line. i.e does all the water in
the drain pan rush out when you turn the fan off?
Regards,
Bridge
Brian Holland
coil causing negative pressure in the drain line. If it is a gas/electric
heat system where the blower is downstream (airflow stream that is) of the
coil, then a trap is useless. All it does is cause problems. Most likely,
if it is 16 years old, then the coil drain pan probably is rusted out and
the coil, at a minimum, should be replaced.
Brian
cbhvac
it down....
"Jodysdee" <jody...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020515102722...@mb-cq.aol.com...
Iove doII
>Date: 5/16/2002 8:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time
>Message-id: <B909EEC9.F4DE%holl...@knology.net>
>
>This would only apply to a heat pump where the blower is upstream of the
>coil causing negative pressure in the drain line. If it is a gas/electric
>heat system where the blower is downstream (airflow stream that is) of the
>coil, then a trap is useless. All it does is cause problems. Most likely,
>if it is 16 years old, then the coil drain pan probably is rusted out and
>the coil, at a minimum, should be replaced.
>
>Brian
>
I'm a little confused here Brian, hopefully you can clear things up.
Essentially you're saying on a pull thru situation an ac coil needs a trap
because of negative pressure at the drain line and with a blow thru coil, no
trap is needed?
It may sound good on paper, but in reality, I think we've all seen a time or
two where a coil sitting on top of a gas furnace just wouldn't drain until a
trap was added.
What about horizontal applications? Package units?
Doesn't a trap keep the sewer gas out of the air stream when the condensate
drain is piped to the waste water system?
Just curious
Brian Holland
> From: iove...@aol.comnospam (Iove doII)
> Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
> Newsgroups: alt.hvac
> Date: 18 May 2002 01:57:57 GMT
> Subject: Re: AC's drain pan won't drain.
>
>> Subject: Re: AC's drain pan won't drain.
>> From: Brian Holland holl...@knology.net
>> Date: 5/16/2002 8:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time
>> Message-id: <B909EEC9.F4DE%holl...@knology.net>
>>
>> This would only apply to a heat pump where the blower is upstream of the
>> coil causing negative pressure in the drain line. If it is a gas/electric
>> heat system where the blower is downstream (airflow stream that is) of the
>> coil, then a trap is useless. All it does is cause problems. Most likely,
>> if it is 16 years old, then the coil drain pan probably is rusted out and
>> the coil, at a minimum, should be replaced.
>>
>> Brian
>>
>
>
> I'm a little confused here Brian, hopefully you can clear things up.
> Essentially you're saying on a pull thru situation an ac coil needs a trap
> because of negative pressure at the drain line and with a blow thru coil, no
> trap is needed?
Yes.
>
> It may sound good on paper, but in reality, I think we've all seen a time or
> two where a coil sitting on top of a gas furnace just wouldn't drain until a
> trap was added.
I don't claim to know all the answers/situations but after 6 years I've
never seen a coil sitting on top of a gas furnace that needed a trap, that
is, unless it's a downflow furnace, in which case, yes it needs a trap.
> What about horizontal applications? Package units?
Horizontal blowing up (i.e. blower in the lower half of the closet and the
coil in the upper half) again, never seen one that "needed" a trap to drain.
In fact, I went on a call today with just this situation. The trap was
stopped up flooding the closet and floor. I cut out the trap, ran the drain
straight out, no drain problems.
Package units are a different animal altogether. It all depends on the
positioning of the coil in relation to the blower assembly. All
manufacturers are different but the ones I've had experience with (i.e. I
have a Rheem 2 ton on my house and it doesn't require a trap because the
blower is upstream of the coil, I install Trane package units where the coil
is upstream of the blower thus requiring a trap) Really, it all depends on
the manufacturer and their recommendations which are usually stated in the
installation instructions.
>
> Doesn't a trap keep the sewer gas out of the air stream when the condensate
> drain is piped to the waste water system?
A trap only keeps sewer gas out of the system if there is negative pressure
on the coil area. I can only explain it like this, if you walk up to a
"positive" pressure system (i.e. fan upstream of the coil) and place your
hand over the drain opening then you will feel air blowing out, if you go to
a "negative" pressure system (i.e. fan downstream of the coil) and place
your hand over the drain opening, you will most likely feel nothing, that is
until you cover the drain opening with your hand, then most likely you will
feel water.
>
>
> Just curious
Hope this helps explain what I was trying to say. I'm not saying that traps
are bad, only that they are sometimes installed in situations where they are
not needed, hence causing unneccesary problems (read: stoppage) where they
shouldn't be installed at all.
Brian
Kelly and Shawn Browne
trap?
"Brian Holland" <holl...@knology.net> wrote in message
news:B90B411E.F64B%holl...@knology.net...
p...@see_my_sig_for_address.com
Any good AC supply house can sell you a sign that says 'No
critters allowed'. Post it prominently above the outlet.
Some company policies may require you to specify the 'No
crawling allowed' version, in order to avoid appearance of an
un-political bias against critters.
This will also aid in keeping small children out of the drain
line.
"Kelly and Shawn Browne" <ksbr...@netpath.net> , pondered and said :
Paul
>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~>~~
Please look at http://helpthecritters.com/ , my new domain for helping critters !!!
My personal WWW site is at http://www.pmilligan.net ,
featuring free HVAC, stock market, and other free software
Never color inside the lines in the coloring book.
Color instead where it pleases you to.
You can only color a page once, but there are always more pages.
EastCoastGuyz
out. I want to let everyone know I got the problem fixed. I called another AC
guy who is local, been in business for a couple of decades. I called him to
start with but unless it seems to be a real emergency (like no AC or heat), it
can be a long wait until he gets to you.
This guy also told me the unit is old and it will need to be replaced sometime
soon also. This guy knew the real age of the system, it was installed in 1980,
so it is 22 years old, not 16 as I was told.
Anyway, back to the drain pan. This guy old me it was rusted and what was
holding some of the water even for a short while was the rust itself. He showed
me in the attic that it was not a clogged drain problem, the drain pan itself
has holes in it. He explained why it wasn't leaking all the time, but I don't
remember the details. Instead of replacing the entire AC system, which was the
only suggest the first company had, he replaced the drain pan. I know we will
need to replace the AC system sometime soon, but this way it gives us some
time.
East
Bubba
Who was knowledgeable?
Who fixed your problem?
Who did NOT lie to you?
Who got you going with a repair and not a replacement (for now)?
And lastly.....................
WHO will be installing your system when it comes time to?
Dont let low price only, affect your decision.
Bubba
EastCoastGuyz
replace the drain pan, said "That would be very expensive!" So I asked "What does a
drain pan cost?" and the guy said he didn't know. That tipped me off, cause I
thought, if you
say it is expense, but you don't know what the part costs, something is fishy here.
The local guy was my first call for this, but it wasn't an emergency to him,
although water dripping from the ceiling is pretty annoying, I called this other
company hoping they could unclog the drain and that would be the fix.