Backed up drain (condensate?) line still after using shop vac

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billy999

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Hi guys, I could sure use some advice. Let me start from the beginning...

Last week we noticed the air conditioning couldn't keep up with the FL temps. It would run the whole day and yet the thermostat kept rising.

Our AC guy comes out and says it's algae growing on the interior fins and it needs cleaning and he recommends UV light. We go ahead with the cleaning and decline the UV light (because we're moving out next month). Everything seems great and it's running much more efficiently and not running constantly.

The next day we have a leak with the PVC drain line. I don't know if the condensate and the drain line are the same thing, but it's where it drains outside of my home after the float switch. Where the arrow is on the attached picture shows where it was leaking from. So I rang up the AC guy and he came out and replaced all of that pipe and the float with a newer float for $20.

The next day we notice it's warm in the house and that the outdoor unit is not running. We see that the float is triggered so we remove the float and shop vac the drain outside the house. We got A LOT of liquid. So we pour some bleach down and figure we're good to go. Well the line isn't clear. We keep draining the line, both from inside and outside with the shop vac. We're currently getting 2.5 cups of liquid every hour from the drain with the shop vac.

So I have a small tote underneath and a towel to hopefully catch any overflow and direct it into the tote while we sleep tonight and be able to keep the AC running.

I've put a call into the AC guy, but I'm looking for any advice you can offer in this situation. Do you think the line is still clogged? Is it normal for the system to produce 2.5 cups an hour for the drain?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
 

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JerryR

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Sounds like after flushing the coils the gunk from the coils is stuffing up the drain line.

The best way to clear it is to hook up a wet vac on the pipe where it exits the house and remove the float and slowly pore water into the pipe where the float was. That should flush out the crud. It may take a few quarts of water sucked through to totally clear the line.

You will be surprised how much crud may be in the pipe.

After that the drain line will not drip until the trap is full.
 

billy999

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Thanks for the replies!

So the tech thinks since it's got suction when I use the shop vac, that the line is clear. He thinks his new PVC job is bad and that the water backs up and doesn't actually drain. I'm also having lots of dripping into the return and I'm guessing that the coils are full of drain water causing them to drip down into the return cavity.

So he's going to re-plumb the drain, but make it go down with gravity below the unit and just totally re-do the PVC. I was thinking we could tie into the sink drain nearby (5" away), but he said that's illegal. :(
 

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billy999

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Well guys, the AC tech came over for 2-hours today and we didn't really get far.

We put water from the hose down the line and it all comes out completely at the other end of the drain. No debris or algae, just clear water. The AC tech sorta thinks there may still be a blockage somewhere with a leak. We're in a 2nd story condo. He's coming back Thursday with lime away to see if that helps clear out the line.

The current setup is shown in the attached picture. We currently have the handler drain going to a p-trap, then draining into a bucket until we can get this figured out.

In the 2nd picture, you can see where the existing drain comes down into the return and goes down to... my neighbor (through the concrete floor) and eventually out the building near the ground.

So since it works 100% now in this temporary drain in the 5-gallon bucket with no float switch setup, don't you think it would work if we just tie back into the drain, but further down so it has a steeper angle (and more gravity)?

Is there any other way to check for blockage? I've already alerted the downstairs neighbor to watch for wet floor/ceiling with all of the blasting we did down the drain today.
 

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billy999

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SOLVED! He just didn't do a p-trap and now it drains fine. He thinks there is another p-trap somewhere else. It's draining outside and everything works, so I'm happy.

Thanks Reach4 and JerryR for your replies!
 

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