Ok- I have no ideal what I am doing. I have two units in my home and they are located upstairs. Today I see my ceiling leaking and I trace it to the air conditioning units. Where the condensation leaks into a drain. This drain is backing up. When I flush a toilet I can hear it thru this pipe. That does not cause the water to back up. There does not appear to be a seperate pvc to the outdoors from our other plumbing. When I use a plunger it clears some water but it has constant standing water. When I turn the a/c back on this will continue to over flow causing a leak in my ceiling.

Continued... My thought is to use Drano to unclog this drain. It appears it is made to have standing water. My neighbor with same house currently does not have an overflow problem but has plenty of standing water in the drain. Please give me your advice. I am leaving town in the morning and would like to know if I can get a temp fix until Monday.

Usually the pan is a secondary catch . Are there 2 drain tubes coming out of your heat exchange unit? If so the one that is lower is the primary and should be piped to a drain ( not the floor drain). If water is coming out of the upper pipe, into the pan, that is the tell-tale and is letting you know that the primary is clogged and needs to be serviced.

In any event, you are looking for trouble to put drano into any part of this system. It probably won't work and now you are stuck with a pipe full of a dangerous chemical.

Get an A/C service tech in to handle this.



Post Edited

"DO NOT USE CHEMICALS" Most A/C units should have an emergency pan under the unit. This pan catches the water if it overflows and pipes the water outside. Many a/c units will clog up right at the exit hole of the primary pan. Often the pvc joint will not be glued near the pan for clean out purposes. Some units have a trap with a clean out tee for clean out purposes. The line is probably clogged up with a slime build up and should be thouroughly cleaned. A quick blow with a water hose often works as a temporary fix but not the thorough cleaning it should get. GOOD LUCK

Ok- Your post as well as the previous poster are really helping. I have two PVC coming from the unit. Both go into the drain in the floor. In talking with my father in law - I have a trap. I opened up the unit and there is no other drip pan or source for water to go to. So what I have is two units with two pvc each dripping into the floor drain that only goes down about 3 inches/ over 2 inches and then back up 3 inches. So it seems that my water wont go uphill (trap) and is over flowing and now is a mess on my ceiling. What I am not sure about is why now? We built the home and have been here 5 years. Maybe this overflow has been happening for a long time but just now has soaked thru the ceiling? I did clean much debris out of the drain but when I pour water in and plunge it stays pretty clean (the suction does not make it past the trap) Please advise. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME!

If you have open access to the pipe try to clean it out with one of several methods. 1) Use a wet vac to suck out the slime and trash. Then maybe put in reverse and blow line out. Use rag and tape if required. 2) Hold hose up to the drain pipe and use the water pressure to blow out and clean out the line. 3) Just two days ago my emergency pan was dripping off from my carport. This told me my primary drain was backed up and the water was overflowing into my emergency pan. I went into the attic and removed the cap from the tee at the trap and manually blew into the pipe very hard. I instantly started hearing the water start to drain. I will address this further when it is not so hot and at my convenience. If the coil is severly dirty it is possible for the condensation to leak around excessive dirt build up and miss the primary pan entirely. GOOD LUCK

JIMMY-
Please see my next longer post. But to respond to yours. I do have two pvc coming from the unit but they both go into the floor drain. The floor drain appears to be a trap (like P trap) looks like a U. Since the two PVC go into the floor drain I am guessing there is not a secondary (primary) drain set up?
Thank you so much!

Ok- I see your options. Are you saying to do these steps to the floor drain? This is the only drain I am finding. Also the floor drain appears to be a U shape so I do not see how the water is expected to travel up. Both units have the two drain pipes only going into the floor drain. Thank you!

Does the A/C drain tie directly into the trap? or Is there a small pipe stuffed inside of a larger pipe with an opening into the larger pipe? It is hard without being able to see it. (A picture would do wonders) If two seperate units are leaking and both tie into a common line it is very possible the common line needs to be cleaned. The trap pipe you are talking about should be able to handle water from a hose. Use a step by step approach to locate where the stoppage is located. Where do you have access into the piping system, if at all ? GOOD LUCK

Both a/c unit pvc goes directly into the drain that is shaped like a U . So this is what my father in law calls a trap. I have not looked into the attic for access (really would not know where to start) so I do not have any other access then what I have with the a/c unit drain. I can hook up a water hose and run it up stairs and turn it on in hopes that pushes right thru the U ? (I did try using a vacumn hose and blowing but that was not very strong.) Does this seem right that the water is expected to go uphill? When you were talking about a main drain for the a/c unit I opened the system up at the bottom and there is nothing but metal and official looking a/c stuff. Would there be another pipe going out the back of the unit? Also my neighbor with the same home has a complete different drain system. Thank you!

Some basic facts to help fully understand will help. 1) Where is the A/C units located ? 2nd fl a/c rm., attic, 2) Where is the floor drain or p-trap located? 3) Where is the water over flowing from ? 4) Are both units having a problem or just one. 5) Can the smaller a/c drain be pulled out of the p-trap to get them out of the way? Are the a/c units vertical or horizontal ? If you have enough room to push the hose down the p-trap and plug opening up with rag and have someone turn on hose(or kink hose to control water)it usually will be enough to blow the trap clean if this is where the stoppage is. I just had to run outside in the rain and light my water heater. Drizzling now was storming earlier. GOOD LUCK

sorry to keep you tied up so long- really appreciate your giving of your time
1. 2nd floor a/c closet
2. drain in the floor in front of the two units
3. water dripping from the pvc pipe into the floor drain/trap
4. appears to be a slow steady drip from both units into the drain
5. There is no smaller drain. THe drain is about 1.5 inch in diameter. The PVC can be moved out of the way so I can have full access to the opening of the drain.
6. Units are vertical
7. If you have email - I can email a pic if that would help?

Thanks!

Okie Dokie (pun intendid) If the water is dripping from the a/c drain pipes into the p-trap, then the small a/c lines are not stopped up and are doing what they should, a slow steady trickle. If you remove the smaller ac drain pipes from the 1 1/2" p-trap and run a hose down the p-trap and the water does not over flow then it is also doing what it's supposed to do. So then where is you water leaking from ? Often on a/c condensate drains the pipes themselve will condenate and may need to be insulated. But why start dripping downstairs now. Am I missing something ? "WONDERING"

Well to clear this up. The PVC pipes are fine they are dripping into the P Trap that was over flowing. It is my only drain option. I took some advice maybe from you- to run the water hose and see if that cleared it up & it just fixed the problem. My guess is there was blockage past the P Trap and the water cleared that up. So how ever wierd it is to me- the drain in the floor keeps a balance of water in the trap and it is not over flowing anymore! Which means I can still leave for my trip in the morning and hopefully my ceiling will not be ruined when I get back. All because you took the time to help me out!!!! Thanks sooo much from an Okie!

I am glad all is flowing well. The p-trap is designed to hole water. This prevents sewer gas smell from entering the home. In the future consider installing a safty pan under the p-trap and pipe it outside so if it ever again overflowed it can carry the water out side. In my area we usually install a emergency pan under each unit and pipe to outside. If piping is not feasible due to existing conditions a float switch can be installed inside of the emergency pan to sense water and shut off the a/c unit. Not that expensive either. Good Luck and Good Night from the Bayou State. (La.)

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you

One further suggestion for emergency back-up: For under $75 dollars you can purchase a condensate drain pump; this is a small pump with a float turn-on; it discharges through a small vinyl tube which could be run out through a soffit vent.

re: photos. There are several free internet sites which let you upload photos, which can then be linked to your posts. These photos have been invaluable on many occasions on this forum. Check it out for future use.

I have a similar issue , related to this one that you responded to a while back. Different circumstances though. Water started leaking into my basement level apartment a week ago from the apartment above. a Plumber condo association hired determined that AC unit above is leaking water down into mine, but owner of apartment above wont allow access again to fix the problem with AC.

From the inside of my apartment ceiling, it looks like water is soaking through insulation wrapped around a PVC like pipe you described in the earlier example, then down onto my celing.

Is it possible to fix the leak my apartment ceiling (ie re directing the water dripping from the AC unit), without going into the unit above ?