whats the best way to prevent a plug?
drain cleaner?
clorox?
shop vac?
any ideas?
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Replies
A blast of air from the top down. I used to use the nitrogen bottle. for that. An air compressor will work.If you blow the other way the plug will probably float back and plug it again.
roger
Every so often I put a capful of bleach in the sump. It seems to keep it nice and clean.
You know, I've never in 30+ years of home ownership had this problem.
Of course, about a year after moving into our house I replaced the piece of garden hose our builder had used with 1/2" PVC, properly sloped for drainage for its entire length.
>>You know, I've never in 30+ years of home ownership had this problem.Probably not so much to do w/ the 1/2" drain line you installed, but rather the fact that you don't use your A/C very much..true?In places like FL (where I am), A/C is used daily for 7 or 8 months, allowing a whole lot of bacterial shmegma to build up in the line and the pan...then it's turned off for 5 months--allowing the scum to dry into a hard clot. When the AC is turned back on in the spring, the line is blocked and the condensate routinely overflows the pan and soaks carpets in homes and apartments everywhere.
"prevent a plug"...or remove a plug? You seem conflicted.
To REMOVE one, as the previous poster said, blow it out (or suck it out w/ a shop vac from the exit side). If you have an in-line trap, that's a likely culprit for the clog--or right at the inlet in the condensate pan itself.
To PREVENT clogs, use pan tabs (available at an A/C or plumbing supply house)...about once a month put one in the condensate pan.
I've seen the pan taps or what's left of them. It's a good idea realy. Make something out of a solid that melts slowly into the water stream and delivers a clorine or anti-bacterial chemical.
i have an office building with 20 air handlers per floor... all drain into one drain line... being a 40yo building the handlers don't have the air flow they once did... even with my best cleaning efforts... which creates a suction which hampers the flow of the drains (creates suction) i use the pan tabs and i installed timers where they all shut down at the same time several times a day allowing them to break the suction and drain... and i shut down the compressor/chiller during the nite and then allow the fans to run to dry everything out... took me 5 yrs to get to this point with the system... but seems to be working now
p
Are all your drains trapped and vented?
We drain humdifier pan and condensate pans into the same line on each AHU, but each one is trapped and vented. That is on ten Liebert units in or Data Center. In our main building each floor AHU condensate drains separately into a floor drain, but has a trap and vent immediately outside the unit. We still occasionaly get glogs. Our Data Center units can never be shut down. Some of the building units do shut down at night, but others can't because of occupancy demands.
Providing traps and vents will break your suction problem, or if you have them already, try having your coils cleaned. Even 20 year old air handlers should not be loosing air flow. Something is not right if you are experienceing a dramatic shift in performance.
Dave
it's a 40yo 4 pipe system... boiler for heat and chiller for cool.... seperate coils back to back in the air handler unit... there is so much crud between the coils (back to back coils aprox 10" worth of coils... heat is never an issue in the building so i've gone so far as to strip the fins from the heat side and just leave the copper loops... just so i could get some flow on the cool coil... i've used ever foaming coil cleaner... used a 2500psi airless paint gun with cleaner.... but i still have more suction in many units than i need... i did install some air breaks (vents) but the condensation was being held in the ahu's ... shut'n down all the blowers (by timers) breaks the suction... and shut'n down the chiller (by timer) and run'n the blower... first let the units drain and the second step lets them dry out... plus it saves me $$$ on electric... win win...
yes i know in a perfectly designed system this wouldn't be an issue... but for me the main thing was to get airflow, stop the pan leaks onto my ceiling tiles... and keep my lines clean & clear...
p
Ya gots ta do whats ya gots to do. No worse than some of the stuff we have "engineered" in our power plants where coal dust and fly ash are system killers.
Dave
I use cheapo bleach with each filter change, I am talking table spoon by the way, it dont take much.
-worth exactly 2 cents!