How To Clean Your Clogged Ac Condensate Drain Line

How to Clean a Clogged AC Condensate Drain Line

Past Erin Huffstetler | 09/05/2017 |

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Last week our upstairs HVAC unit stopped working. My hubby climbed upwards into the attic to troubleshoot, and quickly determined that we had a clogged condensate drain line.

That's the line that your air conditioner uses to get rid of all the humidity that it pulls from the air. When everything is working properly, condensation runs down the drain line and exits outside your house.

But that drain line is pretty small, so it doesn't take much for it to become chock-full. Sediment, algae, mold and insects tin can all clog it up. When that happens, water backs up into the drain pan under your air handler. If y'all accept a newer unit, a sensor will shut your unit off, alerting you to a problem. If you have an older unit, you may not know y'all accept a problem, until the pan overflows and causes water damage to your home.

So how do yous fix the problem? You could call an HVAC visitor to come articulate the clog, but if yous want to save money, this is definitely a problem that you can handle yourself.

Here's What You Exercise:

1. Plough off your AC unit at the thermostat and at the breaker.

2. Locate where the bleed line exits your house, and brand sure it isn't chock-full by an insect nest or something obvious. The get out signal is usually (but not ever) near the condenser unit. It'due south possible that you lot may not accept an outdoor exit point at all. Our upstairs HVAC unit runs to our bathroom drain.

three. If that doesn't solve the problem, locate the bleed line access point nearly your indoor air handler. Remove the plug. Then, attach the suction hose of a wet vac to the line, and endeavour to suck the clog out. For this to work well, you demand to make a tight connexion between the hose and the line. We started by putting the vacuum hose over the bleed line. That pulled some of the clog out, simply it didn't create plenty suction to pull all of the clog out.

And so, nosotros tried a Lint Lizard hose zipper that we had on hand. It's intended for cleaning out dryer vents, but it worked perfectly for this. A Vaccuflex vacuum attachment would serve the aforementioned purpose, and is easier to find. What's skilful about both of these is that they allow y'all to stick your hose in past the T, and then that you're sucking air/water from the condensate line, rather than from the air handler.

Here's the crud that we sucked out of our line on our fourth (and final) attempt.

4. If the bleed line is still clogged, trying sucking the clog out from the leave indicate. Information technology may just be further down the line than you're able to reach from the access point.

5. If, at this point, y'all even so haven't fabricated any progress (or much progress), pour a loving cup of white vinegar into the access indicate, and allow it to sit for a few hours. This will impale any algae or mold that's present, and help to pause upward the clog. And then, try sucking the line out once more.

Be sure to place a saucepan under the outdoor exit point before y'all add together vinegar to the line. If it drips onto plants, it may kill them.

6. Still no luck? And so, yous may desire to try snaking out the line. You may not clean out your clog on the first attempt, but if you stick with information technology, y'all should exist able unclog it without a call to an HVAC repairman.

How to Prevent Future Condensate Drain Clogs

Once we removed the clog, we flushed out the line with vinegar. I programme to brand this a yearly maintenance chore at present. If you alive somewhere humid, you may find that yous need to do this more ofttimes.

Source: https://www.myfrugalhome.com/how-to-clean-a-clogged-ac-condensate-drain-line/

Posted by: kinneytryin1978.blogspot.com

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