It's a mix around hear. They made it illegal to install a heater under the house. Most service calls are from bad installations under the house or in an attic. Not too many problems with basements, except the one with undersized ducts, but they already have been told that... It depends. Basements that flood are no bargain either. Things people don't look at when they buy a house and instead look at the granite countertops
Thank you Sr. for showing your hard work and experience with the syphon hose/wrench Tip and all. We all appreciate the video. God bless you, be safe, take care. J.T.
Another trick when running a siphon to drain a waterbed, is to place the discharge tube into a bucket, so hose is always under water. Put the bucket as far downhill as you can get. Siphon will drain mattress, and hold a vacuum, so mattress will be empty and pressed flat. Have used this technique when preparing to move a household that has waterbed. The mattress will be dry and completely flat.
I replace clogged lines off the unit with a jumbo size which I like 1.5” and when possible use size converters to put a 4” T screw cap clean out in line under the pipe close to the unit and when possible I put several inches stub down to the clean out. Sediment collects mainly at the T stub clean out and water fills the column and then drains off with less sediment therefore less clog. When you come back an open the clean out, it’s filled with crusty crud and cleans in a snap. I just started to use a 4 way at the clean out so you have one down and another on top in case you need to get aggressive with mechanical fish cleaning or pour in CLR, etc. If you can’t access the lower clean out you can vacuum the crud out through the top clean out cap. I have also put just a 3” stub down with an end cap with the clean out on top. Sounds goofy, but if you have the parts normally on the truck, you can pop these right in in short order. I also won’t hesitate to oversize the entire run when you are having a lack of pitch to “woush” the flow effectively with sediment. I have a client that suffered water back up in her unoccupied condo where the pan turn off safety switch failed - a grand fricken mess and a $30,000 insurance claim. I replaced the first one and put a second shut off switch in, which is cheap and probably a good idea in finished areas. But we added an alarm sensor. The alarm company provided a wireless transmitter. We drilled and tapped the top of the pvc drain pipe with two 10/24 “screws about an inch apart as it leaves the pan. Adding these machine screws with a stop nut poked into the pipe and water would touch the bolts when it was above half full and trip a “water drain malfunction” alarm that alerts the alarm center and the homeowner and the maintenance staff cell phone. Obviously you connect to the bolts with wires. We used two ground lugs sandwiched between the top outside nuts to slip the bolts through and there is a screw down terminal for the alarm. We tested it by blocking the end of the drain - went to a quick lunch - and it detected the blockage about a half hour later. The pan was more than half full. We came back to a happy homeowner flailing her smart phone at me - saying “look, see I got the alarm”! Super happy client. It’s interesting to think out of the box and be appreciated for your “above what others do” kind of feel. The alarm company added a sensor under the pan as well and another pop riveted to the top, of the pan. We did all of this for a few hundred dollars for my part and it was really simple and a bit fun. A couple months later the alarm company added a resistor in series with the bolts onto the pvc so humidity would not set the alarm off - requiring physical water contact and avoid false alarms.
So I'm not a pro obviously. My first thought is 1) why do they use such narrow gauge pvc? If it's going to clog as often as it seems, why not standardize on a wider pipe? and 2) this is water that condenses on the coils. Shouldn't that be close to distilled without any suspended solids? We've got a lot of calcium in our water supply so our feed pipes eventually get clogged but I'd think that condensed water would be relatively pure. What's the source of all that gunk?
I generally clear the drain first, then use a transfer pump to pump whatever is in the pan through the drain line...also helps clear it! Happy to see you taking pride in your work, Keep it up!
People should not overlook how awesome a solution that siphon technique was. That was greatness. As a tech who gets down and dirty I will be using it a lot
I did a Walgreens one time where all the drain where clogged. Cut all the lines and used a drain bladder. Look like intestines coming out so I feel your pain. Liked the siphon 👍
What a mess there Ted. Wouldn't it have been better just to replace the PVC at that point? With all the condensate drain issues you guys have there maybe it might be a good idea to carry more 3/4" PVC parts on the truck along with a handful of 10' sticks just in case for things like that. I am guessing just based off the video that there wasn't quite enough slope right there at the elbow and allowed water (muck) to start accumulating which then just made it worse over time.
replacing drain line would make it easier sometimes, but most of the time the customer complains about paying $85 to clear is and clean pan. I could only imagine if I told them it was going to be $200 to $300 to replace a drain line. In all reality though, if he just put his vacuum on the outside and waited a few minutes it would have cleared, and then he could have flushed it with water and got the rest of the junk out.
Another way....Step one, clean main drain outStep two, cut main drain between trap and ac adapter lineStep three, make attachment with three foot long piece of tubing like you used to drain pan, to fit on cut drain line to trapStep four, attach shop vac to outside main drain line, turn on, go up in attic and use tubing adapter to vacuum secondary drain panStep five, reconnect drain trap to ac adapter fitting with short piece of clear vinyl hose.
My nightmare ended yesterday after my HVAC tech blew Nitrogen through the system and a loud bang was heard. (He broke apart the second in line 90° fitting). So I had to get there drain replacement team back in and cut the drywall and find the broken connection. It was located and that solid buildup was found. After repairing the broken area , The helper tech capped the outside drain and the inside guy used a drain solvent he poured from the unit access port. After 30 min they released that outside cap and vacuumed the line, inside the vacuum was a long toothpaste looking - intestine looking Block up floating in the drain solvent. They flushed the system a couple of times with fresh water and reconnected everything back to the Air Handler. One thing he notice was the pitch was slightly off coming out of the air handler so he corrected that too. I’m keeping fingers crossed for a few month-years of trouble fee dripping
Those elbows should only be used on a pressurized water system. For drain, 90 degree sweeps should be used. The gray kind the electricians use for running wire.
I was dying to go look at my aunts' heat pump that fried a compressor a few days ago. I looked in thru the fan and saw the paint had cracked and raised up on top. I wish I tried to get a video or picture of it. She said it was a Goodman, but I could not figure out what brand it was. The line set was obviously corroded and looked like it had been soldered on in an open spot in the insulation.
chinesium steel and junk paints... ROHS anyone? to meet ROHS, green and other standards all products went to the bottom of ocean quality levels... but by golly it's helping overall pollution levels having to expends 300x more energy and pollution when it all fails in 1/100th the time than the old ways of well known life span products... (END SARCASM)
I think that I might give that siphoning method a try next time I find the secondary drain pan full of water. It sure would beat making 15 trips in and out of the attic with a shop vac. I had a bunch of condensate leak calls this week because our monsoon season just started here in Arizona. It's a lot of fun working on rooftop packaged units with lightning striking everywhere. I got caught in hail and a torrential downpour last Monday while replacing a condenser fan motor. Good times.
oh lord.... work smarter not harder... I sometimes need to take my own advice when in a hurry, going for a short break/dump helps lol sometimes I waste thirty minutes to save five, BUT next time same issue appears, I can kill it in roughly 35 minutes less time ;) it's called life and learning :)
For the same reason installers will put the lime set right in front of the blower motor ... they just want to be in and out no worries about future problems
Used that method to empty drain pan many times, easiest way to clean an attic pan out. Never used a crescent wrench though- very nice! Love the videos!
I know and understand why you don't use nitrogen but with all the time you spent and going to crawl space , I would of just blown it and be done with it
crawl space is often high humidity to start with, add in a large pan of water evaporating and it can easily continue to mold and raise the humidity in the house, even with the best of insulation! mobile homes wit thick bottom insulation and vapor barrier is a prime example... it['s always full of penetrations and leaks, unless you waste energy keeping it under high positive pressures, it will be in negatives and suck in everything known to man...
Use a small snake auger and clean the pipe or a small high pressure washer to clear that pipe like the Portland Pressure Washer from Harbor Freight - 1750 PSI - 63254/63255 for 80 buck.
Get a waterbed emptying faucet adapter and adapt it to your plastic tube (garden hose male to your tubing). then you will have constant suction to the drip pan end when you turn the faucet on. I got one you can have for free. Amazing how much lint is generated in a house. My wife sews a lot of quilts for children in need and the lint is everywhere.
Does anyone know what that is in the line? I've had the same problem for years since they installed my current AC. Is it dust from the handler? I had to completely change out drain line. It was completely packed off with a light off white substance that looked like paper flakes. I could not flush it out with air or water after drain cleaner. Sure did make a mess though!
Siphoning is a good method. Try using the existing drain line with vac outside to empty pan. South Florida we have a hell of a time. Sometimes I pop it from the outside to get it free. Then cap it and fill with drain solve.
Question: If I have rusty color water draining well to the outside, is this an issue? I looked inside the evaporator coil inside the house and it doesnt seem rusty.
how's that vac for sucking up leaves, pine needles and small sticks? I always have issues with my portable corded vac, they always get stuck inside the hose when im cleaning inside condensers.
up next, either dryer vented into the ducting or later on insulation crew blew the outside wall cold air return full :)) yup, did that in the past unbeknownst and lesson learned, inspect the whole perimeter of house inside and out, basement/crawlspace before doing blow-in and mark/transfer measeurment to the outside as to NOT fill any exterior wall ducts. other problem areas, missing drywall behind and under cabinets which are used as heat chases...
We just bought a house that the previous owners did what seems like zero maintenance. You should of seen our hvac drain lines. They were worse than this. It blows my mind.
I use the pump hose with a small clip clamped to it, and then clamp onto the pan. You can get the hose to pretty much touch the the bottom of the pan. Also, if you run the other end of the hose under the faucet, it creates a siphon so you don't have to suck on it. And for bad clogs I use blue coil cleaner and let it sit in there for about 10 min, usually breaks all the crud up.
All my homes have had full basements with a dedicated utility rooms, in your video what appears to be a nice home has a god awful mess in the crawlspace, terrible.
To the original installer on the condensate line, "Shame on You". I'm no expert into these AC configuration, but as a DIY, this would be a total failure as far as I'm concerned. How in the world anybody could install a drainage line that just tangled under the crawlspace.
My A/C drain goes directly to a washing machine drain pipe...so I can't tell if it's draining well. Is it recommended to run the pipe to the outside of my house so I can see how well the water is draining out?
Another tech tip.. put a wet vac on the evap drain from the outside outlet, turn it on, cut the drain line from the evap connect a hose to it, you could have vacuum suction, use the hose to clean the pan of water, if you don’t have vacuum suction you have a clog.
Nice work in a very hard environment,to crawl in this low places in the Summer it’s very hard ,and the attic with the humidity and heat it’s a nightmare job .well done .
What are these units? Are they multi split? Down here in Europe the drains are put next to the copper lines that transport the coolant. Sometimes small pumps are added to the inside units if the drains can not be placed vertically.
wow! I have seen a lot of stopped up drains, but the best one ive ever seen were actually acorns from a rodent that dragged some up in the pipe, when the customer started his unit in the early summer he called and said he had water on his floor, I had to use a fish tape to extract the clog and found the acorns had sprouted when the water hit them causing them to swell.
Thankfully most of the AHUs aren't on attics here. Back in my residential days, I always cleaned drains with water. Blew out any clog I've had. Nitrogen would be my first option, then if it was real bad I used water. After a while, I did both. I was always able to remove clogs. Water is the best imo, I don't vacuum anymore unless it's a condo/apt drain.
How does all that sediment forms? Thanks a lot for the video. We had the same situation, but with clogs on several parts of the pipe since originally it was installed with several sections connected by several elbows where most of the heavy clogs were. I decided to simply change all the drainage tubing making it a straighter line for easy clean up in the future.
How do you know which end of the clear hose to suck on next time? Lol I have carried out a lot of shop vac full of water. I feel like a knot head for not thinking of that myself. Thanks for the video !!
Seems like the drain pan needs to be just big enough to catch the condensation from the coil only otherwise, the rest of the pan or anything larger is just a dirt collector. It's really interesting to see how installers tend to put very little into condensate drain line installation and correct fittings, 90 vs 45, in areas of more concern. Very little hangers, the slope tends to vary a lot and some spots the slope is not enough to carry debris that comes with the water. Some of that crud could be airborne attic insulation when its windy outdoors.
I had a drain so clogged up, that when I tried to nitro flush it from up in the attic the elbow in the crawlspace literally exploded. Thankfully there was enough left to put a new one on.
God I hate attic installs/service. Equipment should be in a closet or ducted up from basement. And...... the plumbers should be mandated to provide a DWV for the condensate.
It’s a max of 5 min, onsite you can change to 0 min, but make sure they are back to 5 minutes when leaving, 6000 is one of my fav thermostats user friendly
I bent a piece of 3/8 copper in a "U" and stick one part in the pan and on the other side, I have a squeeze pump so I don't throw up and a ball valve incase my bucket gets full
What a mess! I have never seen anything like that before! Wow! Again, and just wondering why you just don't vac the water from the pan? Seems like it would be much easier?
I actually rigged up a 4' piece of vinyl tubing terminated with 3/4 pvc females on both ends(used a barb fitting to 3/4 male threaded, then attached to 3/4 pvc coupling female thread to slip) . I just cut the drain line upstairs, hook up one end of hose to the cut end going outside, them clamp the other end in the pan. Then hook up the vac outside, and run it until I see no more water being sucked out. Then I know the pan is empty..(and you're flushing out the primary at the same time) Saves you hauling a shop vac full of water down the stairs, through the house, and outside to dump it multiple times.
