The condensate drain line. Not the actual one, but very similar.
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It was the afternoon of Friday, September 3, 2021, the day before the air conditioning incident took place. A steady drip was observed coming out of somewhere in the gutter along the side of the house, by the guest room window. The drip was later examined more closely, and was found to be coming out of a small pipe jutting out from the gutter. This was the secondary drain line for the air conditioner condensate drain. This indicated the drain pan in the attic for the condensate was filling up.
There is a buoyancy sensor in the drain pan as a third measure of safety, in case the secondary drain line can’t drain out the water fast enough. If the water in the pan rises to a certain level, the sensor will trip and cut the whole air conditioning system off. You better have some fans in your house if this happens. And then standing water was discovered in the condensate drain pan. It was not much however, and it wouldn’t fill up too quickly.
The drip became faster and slower as the system ran. Upstairs, the air had been turned off, and downstairs the air was set at 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the smaller downstairs bathroom, the drain had been draining unusually slow for a while. When investigated a couple weeks ago, no clogs were found in visible parts of the drain. However, a shocking fact was uncovered the next day, September 4. A black hose at the rear of the cabinet ran from the attic condensate drain all the way down to the bathroom drain, and connected to it, forming a T. When dissected, it was found to be 100% clogged. When the condensate tried to go down the line, it was blocked, so it went back up the line and out the secondary drain line that was dripping.
The black hose was cleaned out and reattached. In the attic, the water level in the drain pan began to decrease. The dripping stopped outside. And in a matter of minutes, the whole disaster had been brought to a close.
