Drip pan on A/C with major problems
TO someone that reads this I hope this will be an easy one, or it could end up being a very nasty problem. A frinds small house must have had the air handler put in before the roof. We are NO room to move.
As happens this time of year in Florida the drain to thier A/C was glogging up with that lovely stuff that looks like it came from a Elephant with a cold. Rather than draining as much water out of the drain pain as possible, whcih they would do, they were shooting the hose up the drain tube from the outside and not the inside,so were only clearing out enough of the yuck to make the water start flowing again. Had they shot the hose from the isnside they would have cleaned the tube out much better and it wouldn't keep clogging again so often. I've also found out that if you have a good sized portable air cansister that you can put at leas 100 psi of air in you can clean a dring tube out with that failry good without the chance of getting water on the floor.
Well it seems that they last time that it clogged and overflowed (No it does not have a shut off float that I will rememdy) they decided that they could keep the tube from clogging again by placing a fair sized chunk of pool chlorine right next to the drain in the drain pain.
Suprisingly the tube still clogged, however the chlorine reacted with the drain pan over a fairly large area. So when they called me over not only was the tube clogged but now the drain pan in perforated with holes from the chlorine. These are some strange holes. You can only see them by shining a flashlight up the bottom.
Naturally you would first say, just replace the drain pan. I wish I could just lift the roof off and put it right back and then I could do that. Worse is the wntire air handler is supported by the drain pan. There are 2 pieces of angle that or hooked to the roof by 4 pieces all thread and run UNDER THE DRAIN PAN!
The air handler is supported buy boards sitting inside of the drain pan. I have absolutly no idead of how the boards are still in good shape and havent rotted away from years of sitting in water.
So to change the drian pan I would have to somehow support the air handler from the roof so that I could unbolt the drain pan and change it. Since there is only enough room for a small 3 year old to get behind the air handler to even get at the bolts holding the drain pan let alone to hange the air handler would make this a hell of a project.
Some times you would just love to get a few minutes alone in a dark alley with the supposed profesional contractors that leave you with this kind of mess to try an fix.
THe only thing that I can think of to do is to repaire the drain pan in place. I'M GOING TO HAVE TO SOMEHOW SEAL THE DRAIN PAN ON THE TOP WET PART BECASUE AS YOU MIGHT JUST THE DETERIORATED PART OF THE PAN HAS THE ANGLE IRON RUNNING UNDER IT.
It's a shame that places like Home Depot don't want to put out the money to hire the good 'ol Jury Riggers that can fix anything anymore. Kids that know were the stuff is, but nothing about it are a lot cheaper.
I've thought of a few things like the Wet and Dry roofing tar, but it's meant to fix a leak in a roof while it's raining, but will it hold together if it stays wet?
There is probably an epxoy paint that will work and stick, but finding it is another matter. I could use 20 tubes of the mairne epoxy that I know would set up hard as a rock, but I'd be scared that I might push right through the pan while forceing that stuff on. I know that I can strengthen the pan up using figerglass matt and liquid epoxy that I use to repaire boats with,but I'm about possitive that even a quickly as that sets up it won't forme a watertight barrier on a damp rusty surface.
Does any any one know of a product that I could use to water proof the inside of this pan, that is naturally rusty.
TO someone that reads this I hope this will be an easy one, or it could end up being a very nasty problem. A frinds small house must have had the air handler put in before the roof. We are NO room to move.
As happens this time of year in Florida the drain to thier A/C was glogging up with that lovely stuff that looks like it came from a Elephant with a cold. Rather than draining as much water out of the drain pain as possible, whcih they would do, they were shooting the hose up the drain tube from the outside and not the inside,so were only clearing out enough of the yuck to make the water start flowing again. Had they shot the hose from the isnside they would have cleaned the tube out much better and it wouldn't keep clogging again so often. I've also found out that if you have a good sized portable air cansister that you can put at leas 100 psi of air in you can clean a dring tube out with that failry good without the chance of getting water on the floor.
Well it seems that they last time that it clogged and overflowed (No it does not have a shut off float that I will rememdy) they decided that they could keep the tube from clogging again by placing a fair sized chunk of pool chlorine right next to the drain in the drain pain.
Suprisingly the tube still clogged, however the chlorine reacted with the drain pan over a fairly large area. So when they called me over not only was the tube clogged but now the drain pan in perforated with holes from the chlorine. These are some strange holes. You can only see them by shining a flashlight up the bottom.
Naturally you would first say, just replace the drain pan. I wish I could just lift the roof off and put it right back and then I could do that. Worse is the wntire air handler is supported by the drain pan. There are 2 pieces of angle that or hooked to the roof by 4 pieces all thread and run UNDER THE DRAIN PAN!
The air handler is supported buy boards sitting inside of the drain pan. I have absolutly no idead of how the boards are still in good shape and havent rotted away from years of sitting in water.
So to change the drian pan I would have to somehow support the air handler from the roof so that I could unbolt the drain pan and change it. Since there is only enough room for a small 3 year old to get behind the air handler to even get at the bolts holding the drain pan let alone to hange the air handler would make this a hell of a project.
Some times you would just love to get a few minutes alone in a dark alley with the supposed profesional contractors that leave you with this kind of mess to try an fix.
THe only thing that I can think of to do is to repaire the drain pan in place. I'M GOING TO HAVE TO SOMEHOW SEAL THE DRAIN PAN ON THE TOP WET PART BECASUE AS YOU MIGHT JUST THE DETERIORATED PART OF THE PAN HAS THE ANGLE IRON RUNNING UNDER IT.
It's a shame that places like Home Depot don't want to put out the money to hire the good 'ol Jury Riggers that can fix anything anymore. Kids that know were the stuff is, but nothing about it are a lot cheaper.
I've thought of a few things like the Wet and Dry roofing tar, but it's meant to fix a leak in a roof while it's raining, but will it hold together if it stays wet?
There is probably an epxoy paint that will work and stick, but finding it is another matter. I could use 20 tubes of the mairne epoxy that I know would set up hard as a rock, but I'd be scared that I might push right through the pan while forceing that stuff on. I know that I can strengthen the pan up using figerglass matt and liquid epoxy that I use to repaire boats with,but I'm about possitive that even a quickly as that sets up it won't forme a watertight barrier on a damp rusty surface.
Does any any one know of a product that I could use to water proof the inside of this pan, that is naturally rusty.
