Last night, I felt water in areas close to the air intake of my ac system.
The maintenance guy fiddled with something in this picture.
I am thinking maybe, the lower pipe was plugged up?
Does it look familiar to anyone?
I think the apts use a chiller system that uses pipes to send hot/cold water to each apartment.
Andy
It's quite common for a condensate drain on an evaporator coil to become clogged up over time.
Looks like a rusty mess that can clog again. No matter the type of AC, when you chill the air the moisture condenses and has to go some place. If the drain plugs, that place is your floor. Check and clean it once a month and perhaps a half cup of bleach to avoid mold buildup.
On Wed, 24 Jun 2020 16:12:03 -0400, Ed Pawlowski posted for all of us to digest...
I have heard that bleach does not do any good and he would have to have access to the evaporator pan or trap to do it. The best way to cleat these clogs is a vacuum from the outlet at the bottom of the building.
Thanks.
I have lived here about 7 yrs.
So, maybe it will be awhile before it plugs again.
Andy
It's sure one butt-ugly looking setup the way it is - I'd DEFINITELY be doing something about it if it was MY unit!!!
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Pull the drain line and pour it in...my experience has been it helps remarkably effectively.
I dunno how effective the vacuum would be on a long run with a gazillion inlets into it...I'd presume there's a central collection point somewhere, not an individual line for every apartment.
Yeah, and the sheet metal and floor show the effects of surface condensation as well...
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My condensate drain on the furnace got plugged last year. It is PVC pipe and bends did not allow snaking and bleach did no good. I had to cut it to clean it out. Noticed green slimey stuff in it that maybe periodic addition of bleach would have cured. OTOH it took decades to plug up.
Bleach may not be the final solution but it DOES help - and using a vacuum is a good idea but sometimes it needs to be applied at the TOP of the drain - or compressed air applied from below
Well, it is behind a closed door.
Apartments were built in the 80s, so I do not expect it to look very clean.
Andy
Hard to tell from that picture. Yes, where something cold enough it will condense the water out of the air. Thinking it is called dew point.
There should be a pan under the coils to catch the water and a pipe to carry that condensed water to a place it will not cause trouble.
If you are talking about that thing with wires going to it, it is probably the freeze protection. In winter time if the air outside is cold enough it can freeze the water in the pipes. It usually cuts off the fan that blows the air.
It's not about the looks - it's about mold and fungus and slime - and respiratory health
Yes, true, but actually there should be two pans.
One to catch the water, with a drain to take it somewhere. (Drain should have a trap sized for the inches of vacuum. I've seen it done wrong many times.)
The second is an overflow to catch water from the first one when the drain plugs. This one should not have a drain, it should have a float switch that shuts down the airhandler if water gets into it.
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