nealtw
Contractor retired
Everything has a story.
Buddy and his wife bought a house about 8 years ago, the house now is about 17 years.
Some years ago water leaked out of the attic unit and ran down the wall. On investigating we found that the unit had a drain pipe, 1" pvc that was pluged and there was another trey under the unit with it's own drain that seemed to be clear, so for a quik fix we cut the pvc and let the water drip into the lower trey.
He then had the unit serviced and this guy said the pvc pipe should have had a trap (to make it draw) not sure what that means. So he added a tee staight up and a trap out of 4 90s and 3 pipes about 4" long, no cleanout and then with a why conected to the pipe from the lower tray.
So, I think same guy has serviced the unit every year since ans sold them some light to kill mold, which needs new bulbs constantly.
Fair enough so far but late last summer another leak but from the area of the main duct for cool air.
Service guy came in and found the fan had picked up water and sprayed into the duct and couldn't figure out why. Placed a catch pan under the area of the leak in the attic and said just use it sparingly as this unit is shot and if you keep pushing it, it will dammage the unit out side. Also had another guy come in and replace the insulation around the duct.
He then said he was taking a good unit out of another house he was updating
and offered it to my buddy for $500 It is a better unit because it is all aluminum, nobody uses copper anymore and it has been delivered and is sitting in the garage.
I went today only to see what adjustment would have to be made to get the new unit thru the attic access.
The newer unit is a trane appears to be ment to be installed upright as the drain is at the bottom center front. Could not find a model number, no paperwork.
Nosy as I am, I went up and had a look a the old one as this water problem didn't make sense..
I took the front cover off and had a look. It was all dry, it hasn't been used this year so we got a gallon of water and dumped it in the tray. It drained fine and left about 3/8 " of water in the tray. I checked and found that corner of the tray was the lowest spot but as the fitting had been welded there.
In looking around around another fitting like the drain fitting about 8' away and thought if that was open it would be an overflow, I found it had a plastic plug in it and some one had broken it so you couldn't take it out. So a half hour with a screwdriver and hammer I got the plug out so the overflow can drain into the lower trey.
So the questions
1. this unit is shot.
2. trap in drain that just dumps outside into the gutter.
3, any chance an upright Trane can be layed on it's side
4. nobody uses copper anymore
5. this unit will damage the unit outside.
BTW, we found paperwork on the older unit and it clearly shows primary and secondary drain ports.
Buddy and his wife bought a house about 8 years ago, the house now is about 17 years.
Some years ago water leaked out of the attic unit and ran down the wall. On investigating we found that the unit had a drain pipe, 1" pvc that was pluged and there was another trey under the unit with it's own drain that seemed to be clear, so for a quik fix we cut the pvc and let the water drip into the lower trey.
He then had the unit serviced and this guy said the pvc pipe should have had a trap (to make it draw) not sure what that means. So he added a tee staight up and a trap out of 4 90s and 3 pipes about 4" long, no cleanout and then with a why conected to the pipe from the lower tray.
So, I think same guy has serviced the unit every year since ans sold them some light to kill mold, which needs new bulbs constantly.
Fair enough so far but late last summer another leak but from the area of the main duct for cool air.
Service guy came in and found the fan had picked up water and sprayed into the duct and couldn't figure out why. Placed a catch pan under the area of the leak in the attic and said just use it sparingly as this unit is shot and if you keep pushing it, it will dammage the unit out side. Also had another guy come in and replace the insulation around the duct.
He then said he was taking a good unit out of another house he was updating
and offered it to my buddy for $500 It is a better unit because it is all aluminum, nobody uses copper anymore and it has been delivered and is sitting in the garage.
I went today only to see what adjustment would have to be made to get the new unit thru the attic access.
The newer unit is a trane appears to be ment to be installed upright as the drain is at the bottom center front. Could not find a model number, no paperwork.
Nosy as I am, I went up and had a look a the old one as this water problem didn't make sense..
I took the front cover off and had a look. It was all dry, it hasn't been used this year so we got a gallon of water and dumped it in the tray. It drained fine and left about 3/8 " of water in the tray. I checked and found that corner of the tray was the lowest spot but as the fitting had been welded there.
In looking around around another fitting like the drain fitting about 8' away and thought if that was open it would be an overflow, I found it had a plastic plug in it and some one had broken it so you couldn't take it out. So a half hour with a screwdriver and hammer I got the plug out so the overflow can drain into the lower trey.
So the questions
1. this unit is shot.
2. trap in drain that just dumps outside into the gutter.
3, any chance an upright Trane can be layed on it's side
4. nobody uses copper anymore
5. this unit will damage the unit outside.
BTW, we found paperwork on the older unit and it clearly shows primary and secondary drain ports.