Check Your A/C Hoses, or, How to Not Flood Your Basement

Michael H

Hey future (and current!) homeowners, fun fact: The air conditioning (evaporator) coils in your furnace create moisture. This moisture is collected in a drip pan. This drip pan sends water to a drain in your floor somewhere via a tube. Should this tube get clogged, the water will back up and leak out of your furnace.

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See that mofo called "Condensate drain"? That's the guy.

Should you have the AC on for, say, a week and never go into the furnace room, you might not notice the steady drip of water that comes pouring out of your furnace when the tube gets clogged. One week of a trickle accumulates to a lot of water.

And that's the story of how Mike got two shop vacs worth of water all over his workshop floor.

General_Win

How did it clog? Shouldn't water be the only thing draining?

Michael H

It's not so much clogged by dirt or other particles (though that's some of it), but by things that grow in dark and damp areas like algae or mold. My was just brownish greenish gunk, which I will admit I did not examine too closely. It had collected in the "T" fitting that vent hose was inserted into.

General_Win

Gross.