 | Intermittent clogged drain issue |
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Question: I have a small condo, approx 25 yrs old, where in the past year has developed an intermittent drainage problem. on occasion, the drain pipe on the airhandler fills and the tray begins to over fill. I have had an HVAC technicians out three times to fix the issue. once they forced water thru the piping and we saw the water coming out with sludge buildup. another time he put some "pills" that I think where to disolve the buildup. on the third occasion he forced water again but it came out the other end without any buildup. all three times it seemed the problem was cleared up but eventually would return in two weeks or so. I have an electric water heater under the airhandler that I've replaced twice becasue of the ewater overflowing onto it and frying it. The condo is on a first floor of a three story bldg. and the three units on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors share the drainage pipe but the they are not experiencing problems I am. I am in florida and need to use the AC most of the time. like I said, the problem is intermittent. about every two weeks or so this occurs. Do the following make sense? 1. hook up a shop VAC and suck out waterever may be trapped in there. 2. could and animal be crawling up into the pipe, explaining why this is intermittent? 3. This sounds crazy but, could this be a vacuum problem where maybe the pipe is not clogged but instead the pipe is acting in tha same manner as how a straw retains water when you have you finger covering one end? Or any troubleshooting ideas?
Answer: -Sounds like you don't have a P-trap in the drain line or you have 2 P-Traps installed someway in the drain line. this is a very common occurance in the Condo and apartment HVAC system when they are not installed correctly. And no don't tell me it can't be this for it has worked for years and just not started it. ome system will work for years with out the P-Trap but out of the Blue it will styart doing it. P-Trap is a part of the drain that look like the S drain section under your sink to retain water to keep vapor from coming back out of sewer line. -It's also possible that there is an inadequate P-Trap. I've seen countless P-Traps that are more of a token attempt at imitating what some "tech" thinks is supposed to be there but has no idea why or what it does. It seldom hurts to have too much of a trap but can be useless to have too little of a trap.
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