Posts Tagged ‘Condensation’
Mark vs a Clogged AC Drain Pipe.
For those people that swear I NEVER get my hands dirty, well, today as I was sitting at my desk working, l heard dripping coming from the closet where my office’s AC unit is. The unit itself is off the ground, so was not really afraid of flooding, as I opened the closet doors, BUT I was not expecting the nearly inch deep mini pond that was on the riser that the unit sits on. Thank God for the lip on the edge, or it would have been worse. I opened the drain pipe’s cap and oh my god, thought the water was at the top and spilled out a tad bit as I took the cap off, there was a stench that was worse then anything that either of our kids have ever produced. I went downstairs and outside to where both of our AC units condensation pipes drain, and there was water, mixed with a pungent stench. What is weird though I just mowed by there yesterday (and no, I did not come anyway close to hitting the pipes) and did not notice the ponding water or the stench.
Having dealt with clogged condensation pipes in the past, I knew to boil a kettle of water for use later. I wondered if I should be calling my brother in law David, who just graduated the HVAC program at Westside Tech (still proud of him) but I thought, man up dude, and try to do it yourself first. The part that I was a tad freaked out about was the stench.
I dug out the drainage pipe to the elbow, and was really freaked to find that the above ground drain pipe was no longer attached to the elbow, and appear dry. This can only mean that something was up the pipe. Who knows how long the pipe had been like this. I stuck my finger into the open part of the pipe and did not feel anything slimy, which was a mixed blessing.
What I did next is NOT something I would recommend, but did it because to me it made perfect sense. I put a sorta high pressure attachment (hardware store variety not the pressure washer type) onto the end of the hose. After making sure which way to turn nozzle on inside the pipe, I let it go full bore for a second or two. The water I sprayed out came back out, but not much else. SO I did what I am sure Tim the Toolman Taylor would have done in this situation, turn the nozzle to more of a pin point and kept it in the pipe for oh maybe 5 seconds or so. Well, that loosen up what ever the heck the big ol’ globule that came out in one long gelatinous really stenchy mess was, but it was really gross. I am telling myself it was a lizard or something like it. It had to have drowned and then bloated to clog the pipe. That is the story I am telling myself.
So, why the heck did I boil a kettle of water? I poured it down the drain pipe from upstairs, and had I only used room temp tap water I would not have been able to tell if the pipe was clear of not. I will be pouring bleach down it later. BTW, no, I did not go scooping to see if I could find the thing that was clogging the pipe. Just seeing it come out was enough, and thank God it promptly sank to the bottom of the dug out area I made to work on the pipe.
Such is life of a homeowner in Florida.
