2nd Containment has Water... HELP
#1
09-18-18, 10:27 AM
2nd Containment has Water... HELP
Ok sorry if this thread already has been answered. I looked for a couple of hours and I have not found the answer.
Ok so I moved into a house that had a new AC unit upstairs. Of course a inspector came out before I bought the home and did a inspection of the home and then also a A/C guy out and tested the unit. Everything was fine. Fast forward 6 months later. In our bathroom our vent was dripping water. Did some reading on this site and then went to go look to see if my vent was clogged. I didn't see water inside the pipe. I also noticed that who ever installed it didn't have a condensate trap. So off I go to Lowes and found out they didn't sell them. I ordered one on Amazon and when it came in I installed all new PVC with the new trap. I have great flow now as I can see the water racing down the pipe with no issues. I made sure the pipe had a good elevation change to the drain. I was like yay I have fixed the issue. Well about 3 weeks later my wife called and said the A/C doesn't work it is not turning on. I get home and go upstairs and see the 2nd containment is full. I get the shop vac up in the attic and suck up half the pan and then the float goes down and the A/C kicks back on. I had to empty the shop vac before I could get the rest of the water out. That will be for another thread as I am still gagging about it and this was several weeks ago. Needless to say I have found a better way to do it. HAHA Ok enough is a enough as I need professional help. The guy comes out and spends about 20 min up there and says he fixed the problem as he told me that the unit was not level. I was like yeah I already tried that and it was level in all directions. I told him that he said it was a little off. I said no it wasn't and he then said he blew out the lines I told him it was all new drain lines. As I can see this guy was lost. He said he would try and put a new filter in as he thinks the return is not big enough for the unit. he also said the system was low on freon. (not too sure if Freon is the right word or not) Remind you the house is 10 years old and it has been working fine. Ok so as of today every week I have to go up there and suck water out of the containment. It is leaking from the bottom of the unit on both ends. Where the air blows out to the house and where the air is sucked into the unit from the return.
Any help will me greatly appreciated as the A/C guy has told me to call someone else as he doesn't know what else to try without telling me to buy a new unit. The unit is just now a year old.
Ok so I moved into a house that had a new AC unit upstairs. Of course a inspector came out before I bought the home and did a inspection of the home and then also a A/C guy out and tested the unit. Everything was fine. Fast forward 6 months later. In our bathroom our vent was dripping water. Did some reading on this site and then went to go look to see if my vent was clogged. I didn't see water inside the pipe. I also noticed that who ever installed it didn't have a condensate trap. So off I go to Lowes and found out they didn't sell them. I ordered one on Amazon and when it came in I installed all new PVC with the new trap. I have great flow now as I can see the water racing down the pipe with no issues. I made sure the pipe had a good elevation change to the drain. I was like yay I have fixed the issue. Well about 3 weeks later my wife called and said the A/C doesn't work it is not turning on. I get home and go upstairs and see the 2nd containment is full. I get the shop vac up in the attic and suck up half the pan and then the float goes down and the A/C kicks back on. I had to empty the shop vac before I could get the rest of the water out. That will be for another thread as I am still gagging about it and this was several weeks ago. Needless to say I have found a better way to do it. HAHA Ok enough is a enough as I need professional help. The guy comes out and spends about 20 min up there and says he fixed the problem as he told me that the unit was not level. I was like yeah I already tried that and it was level in all directions. I told him that he said it was a little off. I said no it wasn't and he then said he blew out the lines I told him it was all new drain lines. As I can see this guy was lost. He said he would try and put a new filter in as he thinks the return is not big enough for the unit. he also said the system was low on freon. (not too sure if Freon is the right word or not) Remind you the house is 10 years old and it has been working fine. Ok so as of today every week I have to go up there and suck water out of the containment. It is leaking from the bottom of the unit on both ends. Where the air blows out to the house and where the air is sucked into the unit from the return.
Any help will me greatly appreciated as the A/C guy has told me to call someone else as he doesn't know what else to try without telling me to buy a new unit. The unit is just now a year old.
#2
09-18-18, 01:05 PM
Group Moderator
The pan inside the air handler is the drip pan.
The pan outside and underneath the air handler is the overflow pan.
You are describing a clogged primary drain from the internal drip pan.
Post some pictures of the piping where it connects to the air handler..... How-to-insert-pictures
The pan outside and underneath the air handler is the overflow pan.
You are describing a clogged primary drain from the internal drip pan.
Post some pictures of the piping where it connects to the air handler..... How-to-insert-pictures
#4
09-19-18, 04:09 AM
Pictures Are Attached
Here is the pictures. The arrows from what I can tell is the places that the water is dripping from. Just on a side note the A/C guy told me the drip pan is seated in the correct position inside the unit. He said that he has seen some times where the pan is not in the right position to catch the water before in the past. Also they A/C guy that was out to my house had on his truck and shirts preferred Rheem installer. I am sure he had other manufacturers as well I did notice this on his shirt and truck.
Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Last edited by PJmax; 09-19-18 at 12:03 PM. Reason: resized/reoriented/labeled pics
#5
09-19-18, 12:09 PM
Group Moderator
The pictures are very helpful. I see the overflow drain pan where it's supposed to be but not connected to a drain or a safety switch. In the last picture..... I labeled the primary port.... which is the current drain line and the secondary or overflow port. The secondary port is slightly higher than the primary drain line. That secondary port plug should have either a safety shutoff switch in it or some type of drain trap. The overflow pan is supposed to be drained to a place where you can see it or it should have a safety float on it. You need some way of knowing when the primary drain is plugged.
In your primary drain line is a capped vertical piece of pipe. That cap is not glued on. If you remove the cap you can look down and see the horizontal pipe. There should be NO standing water in that horizontal pipe.
In your primary drain line is a capped vertical piece of pipe. That cap is not glued on. If you remove the cap you can look down and see the horizontal pipe. There should be NO standing water in that horizontal pipe.
#6
09-19-18, 02:23 PM
I have removed the cap several times and water is moving down the pipe quickly. I have noticed if I wait a few min after removing the cap there is no more water flowing like when I first removed the cap. Any reason this is? Like I have said there is no clog in the pipe as this is all new PVC that was installed and with the right pitch to make it flow.
#7
09-19-18, 04:45 PM
Group Moderator
It looks like there may be a trap in the primary drain line. That would be a good thing.
Where does that line drain to ? It should not be tied directly into a sanitary sewer or septic system.
Where does that line drain to ? It should not be tied directly into a sanitary sewer or septic system.
#8
09-19-18, 05:48 PM
It is tied into the toilet and I hear that this is normal in these parts of the country. Why would this not be good? It has a trap to make sure the smell doesn’t feed back into the A/C.
I really appreciate the help.
I really appreciate the help.
#9
09-19-18, 09:40 PM
Group Moderator
If you are talking about that small trap near the A/C...... that is not enough. In times of non use...... that trap will dry out and allow gases to be drawn into the air handler. This would be a problem if that provided heating. If it's only for A/C then it would most likely stay filled with water.
When you use a sewer/septic connection for an handler...... the drain line for the air handler should discharge into a trapped drain line much like a washing machine does. This way the air handler could never suck in sewer gases.
When you use a sewer/septic connection for an handler...... the drain line for the air handler should discharge into a trapped drain line much like a washing machine does. This way the air handler could never suck in sewer gases.
