A/C pissed on me!!!!

[Russianwolf]

got home last night and went up to change. I notice my pillow is soaked as I reach for the remote to see how WV/MD is going. Look up and I have a sheet of drywall sagging a good inch and a half.

Quick change and I'm in the attic. After a lot of manuvering I see that the drain pain is rusted around the hole where the drain hose comes out.

I'm not sure what the problem is at this point. It could be the hose is clogged, or it could be that after 20 year the rust finally got the better of the pan. Tonight I'm cutting the hose about 6 inches from the pan and I'll be able to check it for clogs as well as not have as much to work with on the pan side.

For now, I have a 2 foot by 3 foot hole in my bedroom ceiling and a bucket under the drip (after shooving my bed out of the way). I may have to drill a new hole in the bottom of the pan and run a new drain line (sealing the old one).

[Uncle Cracker]

Sounds like the nipple weld rusted out. The pans and the nipple are galvanized, but the welds often are not. Probably ought to change out the whole pan it this point if it's 20 years old. You only want to fix the ceiling once, I'm sure.

[LCHIEN]

i don't know how they do A/C in your area but here in houston, A/C capitol of the world, we have a primary drain and a secondary drain

The primary drain is a pan in the bottom of the air exchanger unit
and the hose from it drains off into the sanitary sewer. You can't see this pan.

The air exchanger unit is mounted over a secondary drain pan which, when the primary pan leaks or backs up because the drain line plugs with mold and mildew, catches the drips. Usually the secondary drain pan is quite visible and should be bone dry. If it has water in it, then the drain hose on the side of it usually runs to the side and over the ceiling joists and drops out the side of the house, usually under an eave. An alert homeowner here watches for a telltale drip or stream from his secondary pan overflow hose.

While theoretically the secondary pan could work for a long time, you need to get the primary drain fixed ASAP. Because of the cost of drain pan leaks, and the secondary drainhose is hard to see, some people have a moisture detector in the secondary pan.

Here in Houston with its humidity, you can actually hear the water running as it drains from the AC.


unless your systems are different, if you can see water in the pan, your primary system has already failed, and with water in your bedroom, your secondary has failed, too.

[Hellrazor]

Most of the newer units have primary and secondary drains plus a float in the pan. If both drains clog up the float shuts the A/C unit off.

[Russianwolf]

cut the hose and nothing was coming out. ran a pipe cleaner up towards the drain pan and (spit sputter) got a flood of linty/dusty debris filled water.

So now it's a simple matter of patcing the pipe where I cut it. I'm going to try to see if I can do it with connectors that will make it easier if this ever happens again in the future (maybe a cleanout connector) I'll have to see what they have that will work.

As far as the pan beneath the pan? This thing was put in 20 years ago by a contractor that cut corners where he could (I have a deck with joists spaced 24 inches on center and 5/4 decking. Puts a spring in your step).

I was actually hoping the thing would just die so I could salvage the blower for the shop. Who in their right mind puts an A/C condensor in an attic where the first clog ensures drywall repair?

[JimD]

Mike,

I agree but the HVAC contractors in SC where I live do not know how to put a furnace in the basement and heat and cool the house. The only kind of ducts that they know how to put in are flexible tubes. They do not know much. My heat pump in the attic is nearing replacement. My furnace in the basement is fine. If one goes out, it is nice to have two but AC in the attic is stupid.

Still not as stupid as my brothers builder in Dallas. They like to put hot water heaters in the attic in Dallas (think about what happens when you get a leak in the water heater). When Tim had his house built, he had them move it to a closet on the first floor. So then they ran every hot water line in the house up into the attic and back down into the closet. They had to wait a long time to get hot water.

My neighbor across the street had a wet crawl space so we went under to investigate. His HVAC guy put the unit right in the center of the crawl space - minimizes ducts. The problem is the drain line had to run ~20 feet with almost no drop to get outside. Didn't work. At least the builder put a layer of sand in the crawl space - makes it a lot more comfortable crawling around correcting things.


Jim