Standing water in the drip tray

[Bretts]

I recently bought a new house and I was having a problem with one of the AC units randomly shutting off after it had been running for a while. Since it's a new home I called the builder and he came out and took a look and determined that the people who installed the AC installed the drain for the drip tray with a slight up hill slope to it, so the drip tray never fully drains.

The problem was that after the AC ran for a while the drip tray wouldn't drain well because of the problem with the drain and the safety float valve would trip and shut down the AC.

The builder's solution was to raise the float valve up so it takes more water in the drip tray to trip the safety switch. This allows the drip tray to drain without tripping the safety switch, but it also means that there is standing water in the drip tray pretty much all of the time. It doesn't look like it's in danger of overflowing at all, so I'm not worried about that, but I am concerned about having water in there all the time.

Should I call the builder back and have him fix the drain line, or is it not really a problem to let water sit in the tray like that?

Thanks,
Brett

[filterchanger]

If you are talking about the pan that is under the airhandler and not the one inside it. Then you need to have a tech come out as water is not supposed to be in this pan at all. That pan is a emergency pan and is only there to catch water if something is wrong with the main drain or system all together.

If you are talking about the pan inside the airhandler ( you would have to take the door off to see it ) then I would want to check if the unit is level.

[Bretts]

If you are talking about the pan inside the airhandler ( you would have to take the door off to see it ) then I would want to check if the unit is level.

Yes, this is the pan inside the unit (The builder had to take the panel off of the front of the air handler to access it). I don't know if he checked to see if the unit was level, but he did point out to me where the drain line goes up hill (very slightly... it's got maybe a 12" horizontal run right where it comes out of the air handler and it goes up maybe 1/4 of an inch or a little more over that run.

He seems to think that it will run OK now, but I'm wondering if this is just a hack job that I should have them come back out and do it right or if you guys think it's OK the way it is.

Thanks again,
Brett

[filterchanger]

I think you should have a HVAC Tech fix the drain so it has proper fall. It should not run up hill and needs to be fixed. Have the tech check level of unit and test drain after repair of the up hill run.

[beenthere]

Call the builder, and have him get the HVAC comany come out and redo the drain properly.
If water stays in teh drain pan too long, you will have nice mold in your system and duct work. Making your new house a health hazzard.