Your browser is out of date. For the correct work of a site, install the new version.Home Guides Home Home Improvement How Much Water Should Be Coming Out of a Drain Pipe for an Air Conditioning Unit? Email Reddit A central air conditioner can produce gallons of condensate a day. There’s a reason your home cooling system is called an “air conditioner” and not merely an “air cooler.” Conditioning the air involves more than just taking the heat out. Humidity extraction is an equally important function of an air conditioner. Damp interior air holds heat energy more efficiently and is difficult to cool. Dry air feels cooler to occupants. But all that moisture condensed out of the air by the evaporator coil has to go somewhere. In most homes, the condensate drain pipe conveys water either to a drain point outside the house or to a connection with the household sewer. How Much Is Enough? In an arid climate where relative humidity remains well below 50 percent most of the time, the evaporator coil in a residential central air conditioner will send about about 5 gallons of water down the drain per day.

In humid climates, however, the drain pipe may convey as much as 20 gallons per day. small air conditioner heater combo window unitHow Much Is Too Much? 1.5 ton ac bestCentral air conditioners in some residences incorporate a primary condensate drain pipe plumbed into the household sewer drain and a secondary backup pipe that drains to the exterior of the home in some conspicuous place if the primary pipe becomes clogged. best ac compressor unitWater flowing from the backup drain pipe is an alert that a potentially damaging overflow condition is developing in the condensate drain pan. Any amount of water discharged from a backup drain pipe is too much and should prompt a call to a heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor. References Alliance for Water Efficiency: Condensate Introduction Photo Credits Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images Suggest a Correction Sod vs. Grass Sod is made primarily with places like golf courses ...

How to Root Coleus When rooting coleus, you're going to want to start by ... About Lava Rose Coleuses Lava rose coleuses are a lovely, shade-loving plant ... Will Hibiscus Bloom Indoors? You can definitely grow hibiscus indoors, but you do ...In addition to cooling your home, an air conditioner removes moisture from the air to lower the humidity level inside your house. This excess condensed water is removed from the AC unit through a small drain pipe and deposited outside on the ground. Over time algae, mold, and mildew can build up inside the condensation drain line and form a clog, causing water to back up and overflow inside the air conditioner unit. To prevent this from happening, pour a cup of bleach in the access opening in the drain line near the AC unit to kill any algae, mold, or mildew that has formed in the pipe. If the condensation line is clogged, you will need to use a shop vac or special pump to remove the clog from the line. Watch this video to find out more.

AC Drain Clean Out (video) Innovative Pump Unclogs AC Condensation Drain Lines (article) Air Conditioners: From Maintenance To Buying New (article) HVAC System Heating and Cooling Maintenance Tips (video) You May Also Like How to Paint Trim Annihilator Wrecking and Utility Bar Getting Ready for Thanksgiving Your air conditioner does two jobs: It cools down the air and it dehumidifies the air. If you live in a dry climate, you want the AC to dehumidify as little as possible because it uses extra energy and makes you spend more on lip balm and hand lotion. If you live in a humid climate, you really want it to do that second job as well as it can to keep your indoor air dry and comfortable. But where does all that condensate go? In most homes, it goes outdoors through a pipe, like the one above. Sometimes there's a little pump that pumps it out, but most often it drains by gravity alone. Occasionally that condensate line gets clogged. This happened at my condo last week.

(We live in Atlanta, Georgia, a mixed-humid climate.) Gunk in the pipe built up to the point where it was barely draining. We could run the AC for a little while and then we'd have to turn it off again. This past weekend I tackled the problem. One of the best ways to do so is with good old air pressure. If you can close off all escape routes except the one in the direction of the clog, you can shoot positive pressure into the pipe near where the indoor unit is located. That should blow the clog out the other end. In our case, that wasn't an option because our condensate line is connected to our upstairs neighbor's air conditioner, too. So I got out my little wet-dry shop vac and set it up to suck the gunk out at the end of the pipe. The photo below shows the setup. I was hoping to avoid a trip to the hardware store, so I used red duct tape to try to make an airtight connection between the shop vac hose and the condensate line. I took the shop vac hose with me to the store and bought some fittings in the plumbing department.

I hooked it all up (photo above) and got a nice, airtight connection this time. With the taped connection, I got maybe half a cup of water out of the pipe. With the airtight connection, I got the bucket full of crud you see below. If you really want to see how bad it was, watch the short video below and you can see my wife pouring it out. Yes, all that gunk was in our condensate line. One problem with condensate lines is that algae can grow in them. In our case, there's also a lot of sediment in that bucket, possibly from a corroded evaporator coil. We replaced our AC in 2009 and the condensate line hasn't been cleaned since then, so some of that crud could have been from our old unit. If you haven't thought about your condensate line lately (or ever), this would be a good time to do so. You can have your HVAC company make sure it's clean, or you can get a shop vac and do it yourself. To keep it clear, you can use an algaecide that's safe for air conditioners. Your HVAC company can recommend one for you.