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Quick! Anyone know about central A/C units??

HigherThisHeat

HigherThisHeat

By chance I was wondering if anyone knows about central a/c. There is water leaking!!
 
My unit looks like this
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Water started dripping from the bottom. So I took off the front cover to see that water has filled inside that little area where the pipe inlet is. I'm guessing that pipe attached there should be draining that? Or should there be no water there at all? I dunno shit about this stuff!
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Water is dripping all over the water heater!
 
 
sounds like you have plugged pipe.. the condenser ends up pulling water out of the air when it cools down and  the water is supposed to go into a drip tray thing that is pipped int the sewer line or outside the house.
 
Yep what Howard said. Clean out the drain with a fish tape, blow it out with your compressor or run coat hanger through it and all should be good.
From the looks of that A-coil your gonna be replacing that thing in future.
 
Oh ok cause there USED TO BE a mystery pipe that stuck out on the outside of the house, but it mysteriously disappeared.
 
No shit so it turns out that shouldn't be burried?? It was under about 5" of dirt.  I had a hell of a time locating it.
 
The pipe was filled up with dirt. I stuck a long thin stick into it and water drained.
 
I bet I am going to need a hvac which I do not own aren't I??
From the outside end do I snake it or from inside portion of the pipe?
 
You might want to also take a look at your coils and see if they're frozen. If there's more water than normal, it could indicate that you're low on freon due to a leak. Those inner coils are notorious for it. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get it serviced.
 
All HVAC stands for is Heating, Ventalation, Air Conditioning.
You need a PLUMBERS SNAKE or FISH TAPE. lol $15 at Home Depot
A Plumbers snake might not fit in the pipe, but Fish Tape is for electricians pullining wire and is about 1/4" in dia.
Either one is about 50 feet long and you should snake from the inside first trying to push the dirt OUT.
Once you get the fish tape out, you can flush with water (carefully) being sure not to drip on your electric water tank.

And yeah, you will need a new unit soon. Maybe have a guy come out to give it a tune up.

Good luck bro.
Your hot water tank Pressure Relief Valve (it's the white one that comes out of the center top of the tank and disappears behind the back of your tank) should also be plumbed outside, so if you find anymore mystery pipes....

:rofl:
On a second look, a plumbers snake should fit into that pvc pipe. it has a crank handle so you can shove it in from the outside, and crank on it then pull debris back out.
 
i was going to say basically the same as phil and scov.   let us know how everything turns out.      and man get your shit together ;)  ;)  :rofl:

replace that 12x20x1 filter those right there will freeze your system up when they get full
 
Yeah the AC was actually serviced about 2 months ago.
 
Hah goddamn it what I meant was a wet/dry vac... isn't there like an acronym for one of them? Oh well... Either way, I borrowed one from the neighbor and sucked out all sorts of fun things!
 
The drip pan at that point still didn't drain so I hooked up the vac to the pipe inside at the air handler and that also had all sorts of disgusting fun gunk stuck up in there... The pan drained. Now lets see if it stays that way.
 
And I just changed that damn filter. Although now that its been sitting in water it probably needs changing again.
 
Thanks for your prompt attention ya'll
 
Ah! You were thinking Shop•Vac. LOLOLOL
 
I took some colon cleanser once. Called 'Colon Blow'.
 
I found the army man I swallowed when I was 7. :rofl:

Want some for your pipes?
 
Since you located the end of the drain pipe you can do the maintenance yourself without having an A/C tech out. it aint hard to do.
1) shut down the power to the a/c and condensate pump,Make sure it is isolated.
2) remove the front panel and airfilter which it think you did already.
3) remove the the end of the pvc that leads into the condensate pump and try to fit a tupperware on the end of the pipe. or you can put the end of the vacumm hose at the end and suck it while you flush.
4) get a water hose or shop vac and clear out the drain pan run the hose throught out the undersides of the coil...on the third pick that will be the front of the drain pan now follow it to the back of both sides with you fingers and you will feel more slime,sludge and lord knows what else is clogging the pan up.be carefull as the fins will cut your fingers.start flushing or vacumming. you can also flush the pvc pipe and make sure to flush the pipe that leads to the outside of your house. then open up the condensate pump and clean it out.these are real simple steps that can help you save money rather than calling out an a/c tech. if you like you can reapet these monthly or every three months,but i recommend that the air-filter be wash or if its replaceable to be replace every month. now you say that the tech was out there two months ago but juddging from the third pic of the slime build up in the pan that the shits been there longer than two months.but i dont know what the tech was out there for..could be replacin some part or a maintenance..i hope this helps but if you do these simple steps then i know it will save you some money than calling a tech and paying $90-120 for just a simple thing...
 
 
Bryan
 
also the drain pipe that was buried should be sticking up out of the ground with at least a 90 degree elbow at the top so crap doesn't fall into it
 
3/5King said:
That's a weird A/C setup..an A-coil should be installed above the blower...lol wtf
Click to expand...
 I was thinking the same thing. It would cool much more efficiently that way.
 
dood you need a new setup... check to see if you can get rebates or something from your power company.. yeah is 3-4k but they finance you.. easy squeeze..
 
Yeah the AC is ancient for sure. I only rent, but I manage the property myself so I was trying to solve the issue on the cheap. The owner isn't going to be on board for a whole new ac replacement untill the thing shits the bed. Which I'm sure will be soon.
 
Thanks to much of the advice I successfully fixed the clog.
 
man your in Florida, +1 to what they all said but you also need to run some bleach water down through that pipe once a month. With the temperatures and humidity we have down here you'll get mold growing in that pipe and the bleach water will kill it off and keep it from growing and closing off the pipe.
 
Might also talk with the owner about getting like a Service America or other policy on the house. I rent also and talked the owner of our house about going in halves on one and 2 months after we got it one of the compressors died and they came out and replaced the entire outside unit, and completely serviced the inside unit, total cost out of pocket, nothing. Owner was so happy about that he gave me a month at half rent. I think the total we paid was 350.00 each which is the more expensive plan where we don't have to pay the service fee every time they come out.
Just a thought :)
 
one you get your drain sorted out, get some tablets called sludge busters from an ac supply or probably HD. You drop a few in your drain pan when you change the filter and they keep the sludge build up to a minimum. 
 
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