House Purchase Advice

[ScottyB]

Well, the condensate lines for my AC unit somehow failed, causing water to pour into the overflow pan for my unit. Additionally, the auto kill switch for the unit that's located in the pan failed so water proceeded to pool up in it until it overflowed in my attic and came streaming down through my hall closet and all over the upstairs floor. Fortunately I caught it when I did and fortunately I used to build homes so I know what to do during disasters like that. Carpet is currently pulled up with fans on it all night, closet is draining from holes I poked in the ceiling and all soggy padding is removed. Hopefully I can get someone out here today to fix it, but I have to say that it wasn't too uncomfortable last night sleeping without the AC...thank God it dropped down to about 72*.

Hoping that it isn't an expensive fix, but pretty much ruins my work morning

Lee, i feel your pain, our condensate drain line cracked at a joint last week - water everywhere. we got it early though.

I worked for an HVAC company over the last 4 years. Not an expert, and you can look at lots of companies that offer similar items but I can recommend a few things you may want to look into as preventative things that can either be set-and-forget or quick application from time to time.

- "pan tabs" are little pill shaped things you put in the drain pan from time to time. they dissolve over a period of weeks and are basically an anti-fungal, anti-algae concoction that keeps your line from filling with sludge. alot of our customers would use PT-151 but check your tonnage first.

- the overflow alarms are often hit or miss because the moving floats jam up with sludge or the magnet gets coated. I'd recommend supplementing the float in the pan with a pipe-mounted safety switch for the unit drainage pipe. i like them because they're very reliable and very accurate. they use sonar to determine how full the pipe is with water.
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