ReplyWere are you at were water runs uphill?Originally Posted by brucezas
Regular Guest
I once had a contractor that actually installed my A-coil upside down. He said that the previous contractor had installed it upside down with the drip pan on top! The previous contractor had made his own drip pan to put under the coil, and that had corroded, disintegrated, and leaked water all over the downstairs ceiling drywall. A short time after he reinstalled the coil, it leaked again. This time water was getting blown around the drip pan. He remedied this, but when he wouldn't pay for the drywall damage, I moved on to another contractor. Good thing, because I then learned that the original contractor actually had the coil installed correctly, and my contractor had reinstalled it upside down. It turns out that when using this A-coil in a Carrier downflow unit, you were supposed to install it with the drip pan on top, and provide your own drip pan on the other side, just as the original contractor had done, and my contractor had "corrected".
Professional Member*
Were are you at were water runs uphill?
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Regular Guest
The coil was designed for an upflow unit, but you could use it in a downflow unit by turning the coil around, which put the drain pan on top, and then providing your own drain pan at the bottom. That was Carrier's official recommendation.
Professional Member*
I'm confused. Was the wrong coil put in to start with?
jim
Common sense isn't very common anymore.
Regular Guest
No, Carrier specified that it could be used in either an upflow unit, or in a downflow unit by turning it around. It's just that the drip pan was mounted to be used in an upflow. So you had to provide your own drip pan to use it for downflow.
This must throw a lot of contractors for a loop if they come across it.
Professional Member*
Other than this not making any sense, is there a point to this?
Regular Guest
Other than being an amusing anecdote, I think the point is that if it doesn't make sense, it's probably something that contractors would want to learn about. This A-coil was probably installed in the 70s. It's an idea that was apparently phased out by Carrier. My second contractor knew about it, but others do not. What doesn't make sense?
Professional Member*
-Top
-/\
/--\ Correct
-Top
\--/
-\/ Incorrect
Regular Guest
Is that regardless of whether the air goes top to bottom or bottom to top?
All I know is that I had a coil with a drip pan on both sides. I had it in each of the above orientations in the same downflow unit during different time periods, and they both worked. As it was explained to me, it came with one of the drip pans, and if you wanted to use it in a downflow configuration, then you were to turn it over so that the drip pan was on the top, and provide your own drip pan.
Professional Member*
OP hasn't a clue what he's talking about.
Drain pan for coil goes on bottom for upflow or downflow- period.
Oh- and I've been doing this since the late 60's.
Regular Guest
First of all, I said that there was a drip pan on the bottom. Obviously, or where would the water go? I owned this unit. I was there when the contractor said, "the A-coil is upside down, look, the drain pan is on the top". I saw it with my own eyes, and there was a pan on the top. There was a smaller disintegrating drip pan at the bottom that almost looked like it was homemade. The contractor said that he was flipping this around to use the drain pan that had been on the top. This was then on the bottom. I watched him as he painfully made adjustments to this pan to keep the water from going around it. The unit cooled both before and after he made the change. When I described this later to an hvac owner, he told me that the original configuration I saw with the second drip pan provided by the installer was how this particular coil was supposed to be installed. He said "this wasn't the greatest idea that Carrier ever had". If you've been installing these since the 60's then you should know what this guy was talking about. How could I not know what I'm talking about when I'm just relating exactly what I saw and what I was told?
Professional Member*
The coil should be installed in the upright ("A" direction, not "V") with the drain pan on the bottom. The Furnace is the only thing that your reverse or install upside-down... See installation manual.
http://www.managemylife.com/mmh/lis_...L/L0211040.pdf
You can call me Sam
It should be a crime to be a mechanical engineer in San Diego
Summer Design Temperature: 83 F Dry Bulb ~ 69 F Wet Bulb (California Climate Zone 7)
Regular Guest
If one were to install it upside down, would you expect any cooling?
Professional Member*
The indoor evaporator coils is cold on all parts of the coil, so no matter which way the air runs through them, they should cool the air.
Now the refrigerant travels through the coils in the same direction so certain set-ups will give slightly better cooling, but the manufacturer knows best and everything should be installed per the instruction manual.
Also, how do you put an extra drain pan on a downflow system without blocking the duct if the coil is installed upside down?
You can call me Sam
It should be a crime to be a mechanical engineer in San Diego
Summer Design Temperature: 83 F Dry Bulb ~ 69 F Wet Bulb (California Climate Zone 7)
Professional Member*
I've seen an inverted A coil. I don't remember the brand. It had a small plastic drip pan under it, factory stuff all the way. No reason it shouldn't work. It's no different in principle than a diagonal slab coil except that there's two of them at opposite angles butted together sharing a single drip pan. I'm still wondering though, if what you saw was actually an Air Seal Assembly, which resembles a pan but isn't. It's there to prevent condensate blow-off, and is removed on downflow applications. A downflow kit is required for that application. The kit contains a flat sheet metal plate that replaces the Air Seal Assembly.
Regular Guest
The extra drain pan was much smaller than the other one. Not sure exactly how it was mounted. Do you find it impossible to believe that once upon a time there was a coil designed to work both downflow and upflow, but where Carrier expected you to flip it to use in the downflow configuration? I think that I will try to contact the owner that explained that to me and review the details with him. BTW, when we tried to use it in the downflow configuration without flipping it, with it's normal drain pan on the bottom, water blew or got sucked around the pan and into the duct. That makes sense if it wasn't intended to work that way.
Professional Member*
The coil your mention might not be a "multipoise" coil... I wonder how Carrier fixed the water being blown into the ducts problem with the new multipoise coils.
You can call me Sam
It should be a crime to be a mechanical engineer in San Diego
Summer Design Temperature: 83 F Dry Bulb ~ 69 F Wet Bulb (California Climate Zone 7)
Regular Guest
We were able to fix it with some modifications. Iirc, the contractor made some little brackets to hold the pan up a little higher.
Professional Member*
What is the model number of the coil?
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Regular Guest
Thank you. I thought I was losing my mind there for a minute. I hate to not know what I'm talking about.
I think I know what you mean because I think I just saw a picture of it. I can't find it again. I was looking for proof of what I was talking about. I didn't find that, but I saw a shallow pan looking thing with sloped edges on top of an old coil. Mine was an actual pan with right angle sides, and an attachment for a hose, and we used it as a fully functioning pan after a few mods to keep water from blowing around it.I'm still wondering though, if what you saw was actually an Air Seal Assembly, which resembles a pan but isn't. It's there to prevent condensate blow-off, and is removed on downflow applications. A downflow kit is required for that application. The kit contains a flat sheet metal plate that replaces the Air Seal Assembly.
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