[dracodoc]

Last night I was woke by our water alarm. Turned out the AC is continuously running for like hours (to drop temp from 26 C to 24 C), and the condensation water overflow to furnace and ground.

I vacuum out lots of water from the bottom of furnace.

It looks like there were water dripping from the joint of the condensation pipe

The drain pipe have a little but not much water flow. I used a shop vac tried to vacuum it, also tried an auger. The auger did get a little bit dirt and some water but not much.


Later with most water removed, I tested the AC again. With 20 mins running, the water is dripping again. There was some water flow from drain pipe when I moved around it (it was a little bit angled up), but the main dripped came from the pipe joint.


When I removed the red cap, water is flowing from here.

My question is:


1. With 20 mins AC running, the condensation water look to be around at least 200 ml. Is this normal? The humidity in house is around 72% according to thermostat. I read that with some problem in AC there could be extra condensation.


2. Now I think the drain pipe don't have serious clog, why is water came from that red cap? Should I seal it somehow, like apply some telfon tape around the cap thread, or this is caused some other problem inside? The putty like black stuff also have some gap below the joint.


Thanks!

 

[yuri]

The red cap is for a overflow connection in case the main one gets clogged up.

Half of the main one is clogged up as the water level is now high enough to overflow.

You need to cut and remove the main one somehow and clean out the clog behind it. It is a pain to do but it is half clogged up.

Put it all back together and use teflon tape to seal the joints. Most of those fittings should be available at HDepot or Lowes.

 

[dracodoc]

Thanks!


I search around, some AC have a T shaped vent to flush the pipe, can I add one in my connection? I'm not sure if I can add it in the white horizontal section, or maybe I cut the vertical gray pipe and clean it, then add a T vent in cut off point for future easier cleaning?

Also, after cutting the pipe, how should I connect them back after cleaning?

The red cap is for a overflow connection in case the main one gets clogged up.

Half of the main one is clogged up as the water level is now high enough to overflow.

You need to cut and remove the main one somehow and clean out the clog behind it. It is a pain to do but it is half clogged up.

Put it all back together and use teflon tape to seal the joints. Most of those fittings should be available at HDepot or Lowes.

 

[yuri]

I would redo/rework the entire setup.

I usually put a 3/4" PVC or galvanized elbow and nipple coming out of the AC coil. Then another nipple and elbow going horizontal and then where it drops to the ground use clear plastic hose.

You can get all that at HDepot. After that whenever you need to clean it you pull the hose off and unthread it all and clean it and re-assemble.

You can buy barbed adaptor fittings and various nipples etc at HDepot. You can go horizontal with the hose BUT put a 3/4" barbed elbow to drop it down so the hose does not get kinked and collapsed.

 

[dracodoc]

I just cut the vertical pipe in middle, vacuumed upper, then tried vacuumed lower part. Later the pipe broke loose from another connection, and I was able to take the remaining pipe outside and clean them.



It was heavy clogged in the connection from vertical to horizontal, I cleaned them and use garden hose to wash down, finally the pipe is no longer clogged.


I'll look into your suggestion so it can be cleaned easily in future. Thank you very much!

 

[yuri]

Yur Welcome:smile:

 

[dracodoc]

I went to homedepot and found this


https://www.homedepot.com/p/Homewerks-Worldwide-1-in-PVC-Slip-x-Slip-Union-511-14-1-1H/204202879


PVC Slip x Slip Union, which could connect to the pvc, and there is the thread to be disconnected if needed.


Though I cut a small piece of pipe to bring with me, then the vertical pipe is almost too short for the connector, in the end it barely fit.


I will test AC again to see how it goes, thank you very much for the help!

 

[yuri]

That looks handy.

I sometimes do the MacGyver/Red Green method and cut a horizontal piece of pipe and the slip a larger piece of clear plastic hose over it or use a union and then tightly seal the ends with electrical tape.

There is no pressure on the drain and it does not take much to seal it.

Pull off the tape and you can take it apart later for cleaning. A union works great too.

Point is those solid pipe drains look nice until the time comes to try clean them and that is impossible w/o taking them apart.

 

[dracodoc]

Because I cut off a small piece of pipe to bring with me, the pipe is a little big tight, and the connection that broke off is not sealed well now. There are some drips of water in connections.


To seal the connection, I may have to use some pvc seal glue, right?


If I switch to your clear hose setup, I think I already have the pvc elbow in horizontal part, all I need is some connection from the white pvc to clear hose?


The pvc to AC drain sprout connection is also slow dripping, I'm not sure what kind of seal do I need, and should I remove it and apply some glue?

 

[yuri]

The fitting(s) which have threads on them you use thick pink teflon tape and try not to use the cheaper thin white tape. Or else you need to wrap it 4-6 times with the white teflon tape.

If you have fittings which need gluing/cementing then you need to use PVC cement.

You can buy clear hose in different sizes and HDepot should have it in a roll and sell it by the foot.

If you can buy 3/4" or a large size and slip it over the PVC then do that and buy a gear clamp and connect it that way. Or wrap the joint very tightly with electrical tape.