Watch those condensation drains.....

We have a basement air that works great and requires generally little maintenance. Or so I thought. A few days ago we were in a warm Southwest area climate and were using the AC. As I strolled past the back of the coach I noted that there was no dripping from under the AC unit. I dismissed it as just being in a really low humidity climate and evaporating the water before it dripped out.

Wrong! A few days later I had remembered it was time to check and change the AC filter, which I do about once a month. I pulled off the inside grate and sure enough the filter was getting pretty dusty. I lifted it out and could see slight bits of dust on the face of the condenser fins. Having the vacuum handy I put the hose on to clean off the fins. It's kind of dark down in the filter compartment so I grabbed a flashlight to see better. Turning it on, I saw something shining back at me. What the?

A closer look showed about 2" of standing water at the bottom of the condenser fins! I went outside to the AC drain tube and began poking at it. Apparently over a period of time, road grime had gummed up the end of the tube, which is a rubber hose that in it's normal shape is closed flat. Presumably the weight of the water caused it to open and let it drip out. Finding a short stick I pushed it into the tube and watched about a gallon of water stream out of the tube onto the ground. 

I don't think it hurt anything, but it's probably not something that I would want to have happen regularly. Now I must think of a fix to keep the tube open and not let critters in to make a home in there. 

I had a similar problem in my 06' Meridian MH with the refer drain tube. The routing of the tube was critical as to where it hung in a little plastic bowl in the back of the refer cabinet. It had been too low in the bowl and when it dripped for a while the end of the tube was under the level of the water in the bowl.  The tube quickly filled with water and backed up into the refer drain tray. When the tray was unable to drain it froze and created quite a little mess inside the refer. 

Note to self, check the water drain tubes on a regular basis. 

Ineresting. Thinking about it could you do what was done on the breathers on earlier Cummins? A small bottle with the hose inside with maybe some small holes to allow the water to drain. I used a rolaids bottle.

That's possible. I would just need to replace the drain hose with a rigid plastic one.

This thread brings a question to mind.  After staying in Las Vegas last month for a few days, I pulled out of the pull-through and water came running out from under the left rear panel.  I assumed it was from the A/C and thought nothing of it.  Should the A/C drain out continuously while running or is there something it goes into before going to the ground?

Should drain pretty much continuously.

SargeW said:

That's possible. I would just need to replace the drain hose with a rigid plastic one.

Click to expand...

Yup, put a hunk of screen or something at the bottom to keep the livestock out and enable the condensation to flow out.

Down here in SW Mo there are wasps that will crawl up a tube like that and build a mud nest and lay eggs.  On our HR Imperial they put a rubber fixture with a slit to let water pass but not allow intrusion by bugs.
Ron

What if you stuffed a piece of rope in the tube? It keeps the critters out and wicks the water out..

I don't know if it would drain fast enough. There is quite a bit of water coming out of that tube when both compressor's cranked up....

Yeah. I thought of that too but at least it will leak..

A buddy of might has a idea with using stainless steel pot scrubbers for filling holes to keeping critteres out. So if you capable of mashing up a small wad of stainless steel pot scrubber in there it would do the trick of allowing water to drain but keeping bugs out... Or even cheaper yet using a scotch brite pad...

Just put a cap with a 1/8" hole drilled in it, on the end.