Got a clogged primary a/c drain line.

[nota]

it is a slime mold bleach will clear it
but you put water in first
and that may dilute the bleach too much too work well/quickly

it is a good idea to dose with bleach full strength ever few months

draino or other drain cleaner will sink thru the water and clear it check first that the cleaner will not react with the bleach/vinegar in there now

btw you can use a stiff wire as a snake no need to buy a small snake

[gshase]

I had a AC PVC line that would not drain so I put a PVC garden hose bib and blasted it out. I installed some valves so I could flush as necessary.

[Zeke]

These lines often do not have sweep L's in them making snaking impossible past the 1st L. You may have to go at from both ends and there may still be a section in between 2 L's that you can't get to.

And, the fact that HVAC guys use typical fittings found on irrigation lines probably has something to do with where the stoppage is.

My question is if you apply 140 lbs. of pressure to the line and no air comes out of the other end, are you getting back pressure there in the attic when you release the connection? If not, the air is going somewhere else. You could be blowing the whole wad into a wall cavity somewhere.

But, I know you aren't stupid, so I'll leave it at that.

[sammyg2]

Back in the day, I combined two 25' 1/4" snakes for better reach. I just fed it until I got to the end of the first snake and then reloaded the drum, threaded one end onto the other and kept feeding.
it's a pain because the torque required to spin that much snake tends to tie em in a knot, but it's not un-possible.
BTW don't hit reverse or you'll retrieve one snake but not the other.
On a good/bad scale that would be down at the bottom, near the "bad" zone.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by nota

btw you can use a stiff wire as a snake no need to buy a small snake

He already did that with the piece of stiff wire that he got from me. This one is a mystery to me...

[fastfredracing]

How about a donkey dick? I think that is the correct plumber slang for it anyhow. You connect it to a garden hose, and it forces water under great pressure through the pipe to knock out clogs. The first time I heard this expression, I thought they were messing with me, but it worked
They look like this

[look 171]

Originally Posted by nota

it is a slime mold bleach will clear it
but you put water in first
and that may dilute the bleach too much too work well/quickly

it is a good idea to dose with bleach full strength ever few months

draino or other drain cleaner will sink thru the water and clear it check first that the cleaner will not react with the bleach/vinegar in there now

btw you can use a stiff wire as a snake no need to buy a small snake

That's crazy. You should not have to do that.

[look 171]

Garden hose? Unless you want lot of water up in the attic, depending which way you are blasting it from. The best thing is to go up and cut out the section and run new piece (s). It isn't in concrete. After you cut the PVC pipe, turn it with your hand and free it from the stucco and put it right out. No problem with water all over the attic. You have to get in there to blast it with water anyway. Lots of fun dragging the hose up there on your belly.

[Rick Lee]

NO JOY!

I got a 25' snake today and got all but about the last 5' down the pipe from the attic end. It felt like it was pushing something, but I just could not feed any more of it in. Did it from the outside too and probably got 15' in from that end. Also felt like it was pushing something, but could get no more in there. Then I tried 140 psi of air from the attic end. Nothing. The snake definitely was wet when it came out and smelled of vinegar. But there is not even a drip coming out the lower end. I think I'm going to have to call the home warranty co. tomorrow and fork over the $75 for the service call, but then be done with it. A/C season is coming very quickly.

[biosurfer1]

at this point I wonder if something crawled down there and died.

[Rick Lee]

I'm wondering that too, but there is no stench at all. No goo or guts on the end of the snake, just water and vinegar.

[GWN7]

All that might be left is bones, hair and a mold plug. Your snake would push thru it but not remove it. It gets wet coming back thru the P trap. The sewer cleaner I posted before has a rotating cable and various cutter heads for different size pipes. I'd lend you mine ( I have a 75' cable HD model) if you were closer.

Call a rotor rooter type guy and get him to snake the line from the ground up. If there is a blockage he will be able to remove it. It will cost about what you are willing to pay for your home warrantee service call.

[Rick Lee]

P-trap is removed. I called the home warranty co. and they're sending someone out. It's a $55 service call. Once this is done, I can replace the p-trap (already have the stuff) and then my a/c will be ready.

[Zeke]

Most of these things are 3/4" PVC lines. Is that what you have? All this talk about snakes is irrelevant. Plus, a lot of them aren't much more than Schedule 20. You could break that easily with a cable. Hope this thing isn't separated and open in the wall somewhere.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Hope this thing isn't separated and open in the wall somewhere.

I would worry about that, except that the secondary drain line works like a charm and there's a near steady stream of condensate dripping out of it when the a/c runs in hot and humid weather, which means the primary line is blocked and the condensate is backing up to the drain pan. If it were broken, the condensate would not be backing up to the pan.

[Zeke]

Right, forgot that part.

[Hugh R]

Mine was plugged. I cut the PVC and put in a ball valve on the condensate pan end to close it off, put next too it a t fitting with a hose bib. Ran garden hose up to the attic, closed off the ball valve opened the hose bib with garden hose, son turns on outside hose for a few seconds. Line cleared, open ball valve, to drain pan, close hose bib.

[URY914]

You could have installed a new line by now.

[Rick Lee]

Gawd, I'm an idiot. All is solved now. Turns out the primary drain line runs into the guest bathroom sink drain, which I hadn't read anywhere. And I did research this a bit. The a/c guy came, immediately said the lower drain pipe on the side of the house was from the hot water heater and went to the guest bathroom sink. He pulled that hose off the drain pipe and there was the vinegar. Since that only took five min. and he was gonna bill an hour to the warranty co., he offered to go up and replace the p-trap for me and first run some water through it to see if I could hear it draining in the bathroom. Worked like a charm. Just need to clean my coils off today and then the a/c is ready to go. What a fool I used to be.

[sammyg2]

Glad ya got that solved, I was gonna suggest you pour this stuff down there and that coulda got messy: