Expensive Lessons About Your Air Conditioner In Florida.
If you have central air, your air handler unit on the inside of your house has a drainage pipe, usually PVC plastic, running from the unit to the outside. This drainage pipe takes natural condensation from the inside of the air handler and dumps it outside. The outside portion of this pipe can be found usually next to the large air conditioning unit outside your home.
As time goes on, this pipe will build up with bacteria, lint, and mold in the hot Florida climate. You'll be sitting inside one day and suddenly realize the carpet near your air handler is soaking wet. It's generally because your drainage pipe is full of gunk and the water from your a/c unit has nowhere else to go. When this thing clogs it can cause as much as 2 gallons of water to overflow inside your home in a matter of minutes. It's a huge mess. It can cause staining, mold, and a host of other unpleasant things in the house - not to mention the sopping wet carpet. Not to mention your A/C will not work again until you clean it out.
Tip 1: Periodically add a scuzz buster to the line: household bleach. On the PVC pipe, near where it comes out of the air handler, there will be a small removable cap. Take the cap off and place 1 Tbs to ¼ cup of bleach down this hole every 3 months. It's probably easiest to do this when you change your air filter each month.
Tip 2: If you find yourself in this awful situation already, do the following:
- Turn off the air conditioner.
- Remove the cap referenced in Tip 1.
- Purchase a wet vac from any hardware store, Home Depot, etc.
- Go outside and, tape the intake nozzle of the wet vac over the drainage pipe outside the home. (of course, as a guy, I like duct tape)
- Suck the debris from the pipe.
- Add the bleach to prevent further problems, replace the cap on the drain pipe and you're done.
I hope you find this useful. It is my hope that this little tip will save you tons of time, money, and aggravation in your home. If you need any further explanation with this or any other issues, please call me at the office. 407 681-4288.
Dan Dowling
United Mortgage Capital Corp.
Note: I learned this lesson the hard way. Hopefully my loss will be your gain. Have a great day!
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