I have a drain under the eve of my house which I'm guessing is the condensation line for the unit in the attic. It drips constantly and at times is a small but steady stream. It keeps the ground saturated where it drips at so I wound up putting a 5 gal bucket under it and rigged a garden hose to it and everyday or 2 I move the hose around the flower beds so it keeps them watered. I'm wondering though should it drip this much water?
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Should not drip at all. If you ac is set up like mine you will have two pipes coming off your unit in the attic or closet. One (your primary) goes to a drain of some sort in your pipe system....and the second one (your back up) is setup to drain from your eve. When it drips from your eve it signals that your primary drain pipe is clogged. Clogged with algae buildup from the condensation..
You should have a T in your primary drain pipe with a riser or up pipe coming off the unit ....it's usually about 4". Or at least mine does......You can do a couple of things things to try to fix it. First thing is to blow air in it as hard as you can to see if you can force it out. You can also pour bleach down the pipe and give it about 30 minutes to kill the algae and give it another blow. If you can't break it free, then use compressed air.......and if you don't have an air compressor, you can use you water hose to squirt down it. Some mount a PVC hose fitting on the up pipe and connect a hose to it....some just use a sprayer carefully.
But what you want to do is clear the primary pipe of gunk so that it is not draining out of your secondary or backup drain. If that gets clogged then it should fill a safety pan (third backup) and then on to the ceiling which is bad... Once you get it unclogged.....pour more bleach down it.
Again this is how mine is setup....if yours is different, post up how......
Good luck...Last edited by Smart; 06-13-2009, 10:30 PM. -
Jason has you covered!!Comment
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It depends. Do you know if it is the primary drain or the secondary drain that is dripping? Usually the primary drain line goes into a plumbing vent line and water only comes out of the secondary if the primary line is clogged. In some older houses both the pimary drain line and the secondary line empty outside the house.
If you are not sure look at the unit in the attic. There will be one line coming out of the bottom of the coil. That is the primary. There is another line coming from a pan under the coil. That is the secondary.
If the line you are seeing dripping is the secondary, the primary is clogged and if the secondary clogs the pan will overflow and water will come through your ceiling.
As far as volume, the more water that is coming out, the more humidity your unit it taking out of the air in your house.Comment
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Sounds like your main drain is what you got. You should be seeing the secondaryComment
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The drain coming out the eve is a emergency drain ,the only time it will drain is when the main drain is stopped up or the coil pan is rusted out.Blow the main drain out and it should stop dripping out of the eve when the emergency pan dries out.If you dont you will get sheetrock damage if the line coming out of the eve ever stops up.They also sell a float switch that will stop your ac from running when the lines stop up.It is a good idea to get one.Comment
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