how do you clean condensate drains?

[mike_meridian]

What is the best way to clean the 3/4" pvc condensate drains on airhandlers.

Shopvac?
Nitrogen?
snake?

Thanks,

Mike

[acmech13]

blow'em out if it needs a snake i replace it.

[BigJon3475]

Blow em out with nitrogen or little CO² cartridges. (swoosh)

[BobbyBJr]

I keep a sludge sucker, nitrogen, a Gallo gun and a shop vac on my truck. Different situations call for different measures, but I use the shop vac most of the time with the Gallo gun probably coming in second.

Bobby

[Chuck Harwell]

Lets be honest.The best way to blast a condensate drain is to use a take of freon.If that dont unclog it replace it.

[madhat]

Replace the drain with copper. Blowing, vacuuming, snaking it out will not get rid of the bacteria that clogged the drain in the first place. If you have a boat in the water do you coat the bottom with PVC to keep it from fouling? No you would use a copper coating.

[BigJon3475]

Had a main condensate clog today. It would drain very very slow but it was draining. I used sulfuric drain opener (something that can be used on PVC and not metal) I pour a little bit in maybe 3 oz's. Waited 2 minutes and opened the pressure temp relief on the hot water heat. WOW is all I have to say. If you could hock up 4 lbs of mucus that is what it looked like coming out of the drain. Needless to say that fixed it (barf)

[refrige-nate]

Lets be honest.The best way to blast a condensate drain is to use a take of freon.If that dont unclog it replace it.

hmm i wonder how your local epa inspector would feel about this:p

[dash]

The stuf that grows in some drains ,can't be blown or fluhed out entirely.

We have found Descaler left in with water for 15 to 30 minutes ,after flushing ,kills the growth.

Big problem here in Florida,drains often run under the slab and back up to grade,giant trap that holds water.

[BigJon3475]

Big problem here in Florida,drains often run under the slab and back up to grade,giant trap that holds water.

Thats how the one was today. It was nasty to say the least.

[tpa-fl]

Big problem here in Florida,drains often run under the slab and back up to grade,giant trap that holds water.

That's actually how I ended up doing my setup here. As a bonus, the under-slab portion acts as a giant P-trap. :) A clean-out piece/port on the PVC is essential, as is routine maintenance. If you wait until the drain line's totally clogged before blowing/clearing the line, you're only setting yourself up for problems.

Another trick is to dump a bit of salt into the trap/cleanout. Just make sure it can't flow back into the equipment. Most species of bacteria which grow in in condensate lines aren't halotolerant (capable of living in a salt environment). You don't want to use too much of this if you have sensitive plants directly underneath the condensate line outside either. We use this trick all the time at work, keeping our soda & "other beverages" in an ice/brine solution in the cooler. Way too many times, we're in a hurry to pack up our equipment and get out of there that we forget about the cooler.

[dash]

That's actually how I ended up doing my setup here. As a bonus, the under-slab portion acts as a giant P-trap. :) A clean-out piece/port on the PVC is essential, as is routine maintenance. If you wait until the drain line's totally clogged before blowing/clearing the line, you're only setting yourself up for problems.

Another trick is to dump a bit of salt into the trap/cleanout. Just make sure it can't flow back into the equipment. Most species of bacteria which grow in in condensate lines aren't halotolerant (capable of living in a salt environment). You don't want to use too much of this if you have sensitive plants directly underneath the condensate line outside either. We use this trick all the time at work, keeping our soda & "other beverages" in an ice/brine solution in the cooler. Way too many times, we're in a hurry to pack up our equipment and get out of there that we forget about the cooler.



We pipe our installs and even rework some to have an access to flush,so we could add the salt there as it's on the outflow of the p-trap.'

Thanks for the tip we'll test it,any idea how much salt for 20 feet of 3/4" PVC?Maybe salt tablets of some kind?