HVAC guys... not an electrical problem. Maybe not a problem.

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

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Okay we all know that when we run the AC we get condensate drain. The old AC unit made a LOT of condensate drain. The new one, so far, makes NONE.

It works. It cools. It hella cools. The drains appear to be clear and I'm not getting water where it shouldn't be going. Any ideas?

A cursory Google search had one suggestion that the circulation fan was strong enough the coils don't get cold enough to collect condensate. This doesn't make much sense to me though. Any ideas?
 
Of note - I sweat like a m******er at night. More so than before. Maybe the water is not being removed? Solution?
 
Sac Arrow said:
Of note - I sweat like a m******er at night. More so than before. Maybe the water is not being removed? Solution?
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Interesting, so is the humidity high then? It makes me think it must be if the unit is cooling the house but you’re still sweating. It could be the blower speed. If the blower speed is too high, it will reduce the ability to effectively dehumidify, so you may look at that.
 
RyanB said:
Interesting, so is the humidity high then? It makes me think it must be if the unit is cooling the house but you’re still sweating. It could be the blower speed. If the blower speed is too high, it will reduce the ability to effectively dehumidify, so you may look at that.
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That's not a choice. But it makes sense.
 
Hmmm, might be low on freon. Or the drain is plugged.

Go out to the condenser, the air blowing out of it should be warmer than the outside air. Find the pipes that go into it. The bigger one should have sweat on it, but should not be frozen up. The little pipe should be warm.
 
Perhaps the drain is clogged and your air handler is sitting is a pool of water.

That happened to me.
 
system could be over charged.....causing the evap coils to run warmer. Take some temp measurements and determine your superheat.

Under charged and the evap would ice up....
 
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Take your entering sensible temperature, and your relative humidity reading. Plot those numbers on your psychometric chart.......

Take your leaving sensible temperature, and your leaving humidity reading. Plot those numbers on your psychometric chart......

That should help you determine if you are doing any good or not.

Beyond that, if everything is running, you'll need to start looking at operating pressures....
 
What kind of AC? old window ac's used to drain the water. If you tilted them incorrectly, they could drain back into the house. New units try to evaporate that water on the outside. That probably works in AZ, it doesn't work in NY where the humidity in the summer is normally 2 points below "rain". So they make weird gurgling noises and end up leaking and/or blowing the water out the back.
 
Is the ac running as long as the old unit? If it’s oversized it will blast out cold air, then stop. It won’t be on long enough to remove humidity and the house will feel clammy. Might be worse at night when temps cool down and the ac runs even less.
 
Plumbed right, you shouldn’t see any drainage, it should be tapped into a sink drain somewhere. Only if that’s clogged should you see water dripping from the emergency drain. I second Matthew above, if a contractor is “old school” bigger is better right? Happens a lot. In theory, on the hottest day it should run continuously.
 
PaulS said:
Hmmm, might be low on freon. Or the drain is plugged.

Go out to the condenser, the air blowing out of it should be warmer than the outside air. Find the pipes that go into it. The bigger one should have sweat on it, but should not be frozen up. The little pipe should be warm.
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I doubt it's low on refrigerant. It's not even a year old. It seems to be working correctly in every other respect.

Albany Tom said:
What kind of AC? old window ac's used to drain the water. If you tilted them incorrectly, they could drain back into the house. New units try to evaporate that water on the outside. That probably works in AZ, it doesn't work in NY where the humidity in the summer is normally 2 points below "rain". So they make weird gurgling noises and end up leaking and/or blowing the water out the back.
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It's a central AC in the garage with the compressor unit in the back yard.

Matthew said:
Is the ac running as long as the old unit? If it’s oversized it will blast out cold air, then stop. It won’t be on long enough to remove humidity and the house will feel clammy. Might be worse at night when temps cool down and the ac runs even less.
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Hard to say. It's the same size (output) as the old one - 2 1/2 ton. It doesn't actually feel clammy.

Blatham489 said:
Plumbed right, you shouldn’t see any drainage, it should be tapped into a sink drain somewhere. Only if that’s clogged should you see water dripping from the emergency drain. I second Matthew above, if a contractor is “old school” bigger is better right? Happens a lot. In theory, on the hottest day it should run continuously.
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The drain goes through the garage wall and daylights to the ground. I don't think it's clogged because there seems to be nothing coming from the overflow. They even installed a little float switch in the drain pipe, presumably to shut it down in the event of a clog.
 
When running, what is the temp of the copper evap gas return line (large copper tube coming from the A-coil in the garage)? Should be something like 48-55 F. Higher than 55F indicates an over charged state....less than 45 is an under charged state.
 
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Blatham489 said:
Plumbed right, you shouldn’t see any drainage, it should be tapped into a sink drain somewhere. Only if that’s clogged should you see water dripping from the emergency drain. I second Matthew above, if a contractor is “old school” bigger is better right? Happens a lot. In theory, on the hottest day it should run continuously.
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In Texas, our HVACs are usually in the attic or ceiling somewhere and draining into a drain line is a no no. It has to go outside.

Your building/fire codes may be different.
 
Mine had 2 drain lines. One that emptied about 6" above the ground and an overflow line that dropped from the eaves right in front of a window. In theory so you'd notice the main line was plugged and the overflow was being used.
 
I did dunk a piece of flex tube down the P trap in the drain line and there is condensate, just not as much as I would expect.
 
Spend a couple bucks and get an indoor thermometer with relative humidity readout. Should be pretty dry in the house if the a/c is running correctly.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I doubt it's low on refrigerant. It's not even a year old.
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My new AC is low on refrigerant (condenser leak), one year after my (also new) minisplit ate itself. Sure it's a bunch of labor, but at least the lead time on the warranty replacement parts is long.
 
Sac, call the guy who put it in, he might fix it for nothing or labor only. Shouldn't be having an issue this soon. Make sure it isn't OE, lol.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Spend a couple bucks and get an indoor thermometer with relative humidity readout. Should be pretty dry in the house if the a/c is running correctly.
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Made me go look. The thermostat actually displays humidity and it is indicating 49%. Not super dry, but not super humid either.
 
...annnnnnndddddd....

Guess what. The AC has now been running for a while, and a nice big pool of water is forming on the outside deck under the drain. I guess it just hasn't run enough so far this year to overcome the little P trap (3/4" PVC) but that sure changed. Humidity is dropping as well.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Made me go look. The thermostat actually displays humidity and it is indicating 49%. Not super dry, but not super humid either.
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There ya go. You're a pilot, rely on your instruments.
 
Have modern HVAC systems gotten on the IoT bandwagon with closed loop monitoring/alerting for refrigerant levels / temperatures / etc?
 
GeorgeC said:
Have modern HVAC systems gotten on the IoT bandwagon with closed loop monitoring/alerting for refrigerant levels / temperatures / etc?
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If you mean residential systems, mine doesn't. I'm sure the HVAC systems cooling the Pentagon and CIA McLean complex are even monitoring for hidden microbots and anthrax contamination.

Then again I'm a cheap bastard. It might have been an upgrade.
 
IK04 said:
In Texas, our HVACs are usually in the attic or ceiling somewhere and draining into a drain line is a no no. It has to go outside.

Your building/fire codes may be different.
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I’m in Texas. You’re referring to the emergency drain, which must not only go outside, it must exit in front of a window so you see it dripping. Pretty certain (last code I worked with was 2012) the primary drain is required to drain into a sink or other drain line.
 
IK04 said:
Perhaps the drain is clogged and your air handler is sitting is a pool of water.

That happened to me.
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Same here, but my air handler unit is in the attic and it eventually overflowed the pan. That gave me the opportunity to replace my popcorn ceiling and have my attic professionally treated for mold. At the installer's expense.
 
Blatham489 said:
I’m in Texas. You’re referring to the emergency drain, which must not only go outside, it must exit in front of a window so you see it dripping. Pretty certain (last code I worked with was 2012) the primary drain is required to drain into a sink or other drain line.
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Interesting. Mine only has one drain.
 
:) You guys in Texas have some serious rules about your AC. I guess I can understand that. Here, we probably have more rules about heat.
 
Okay, this is sort of off-topic, but I just saw the craziest drain setup on a set of utility plans. So there are a couple of residual analyzers mounted on a wall, and the waste goes to a drain that daylights out to a ditch. That's... pretty typical. Usually they route to a sanitary sewer if a connection is available, and or out to a ditch or grassy area if there isn't. Designed millions of them. Okay maybe not millions, but certainly dozens of them. Several dozens. We're talking about a trickle flow of drinking water here.

For whatever reason, the designer felt it was prudent to run the analyzer drain through a small sump with some dechlorination tablets in it. I'm staring at this like whaaaaaaaa?

Okay, yes, utilities have a general requirement for dechlorinating large amounts of water discharged from a water main, but, a trickle discharge? The water sent to irrigate the landscaping outside doesn't get dechlorinated! The water used to hose down equipment and vehicles in the lot doesn't get dechlorinated!
 
Sac Arrow said:
Okay, this is sort of off-topic, but I just saw the craziest drain setup on a set of utility plans. So there are a couple of residual analyzers mounted on a wall, and the waste goes to a drain that daylights out to a ditch. That's... pretty typical. Usually they route to a sanitary sewer if a connection is available, and or out to a ditch or grassy area if there isn't. Designed millions of them. Okay maybe not millions, but certainly dozens of them. Several dozens. We're talking about a trickle flow of drinking water here.

For whatever reason, the designer felt it was prudent to run the analyzer drain through a small sump with some dechlorination tablets in it. I'm staring at this like whaaaaaaaa?

Okay, yes, utilities have a general requirement for dechlorinating large amounts of water discharged from a water main, but, a trickle discharge? The water sent to irrigate the landscaping outside doesn't get dechlorinated! The water used to hose down equipment and vehicles in the lot doesn't get dechlorinated!
Click to expand...

That is potentially a few gallons per day released into the environment untreated . . . think of the children!! :D
 
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