Water dripping from aircon FCU

[shibumi 1]

Hi fellows, may I know if there is water continuously dripping from my FCU at the corner depicted in the illustration, what's going on, & how do I stop it? It's dripping steadily even though I've powered down the aircon (no compressor running).

[bepgof 20]

FCU has 2 paths - incoming gas (cold) & outgoing gas (hot).

The cold gas passes through tube with alu 'fins' and when fins contact with ambient hotter air (actually is higher humidity) , water condenses and drips, supposing go to drainage pipe for discharge.

Look more like the drainage path choked, in yr case. Blow it with pressure jet. 

 

[shibumi 1]

32 minutes ago, bepgof said:

FCU has 2 paths - incoming gas (cold) & outgoing gas (hot).

The cold gas passes through tube with alu 'fins' and when fins contact with ambient hotter air (actually is higher humidity) , water condenses and drips, supposing go to drainage pipe for discharge.

Look more like the drainage path choked, in yr case. Blow it with pressure jet. 

 

Hmm...my drainage pipe is concealed (DBSS). I assume there should be an outlet somewhere? Any idea where it is? That's the downside of having no trunking (not by choice), I have nothing to trace/follow. & shouldn't I use a vacuum to suck from the (outlet of) the drainage pipe instead of jetting water into it?

[BrandonSun 0]

I have this same particular issue too, hoping that i can find a solution to solve it by myself!

[w7_lee 11]

Will be easier if the front cover of the fan coil is removed. It will be easier to locate the drainage hose that is connected to the drip tray. The other end of this drain hose will go to the drainage pipe and end in your toilet.

I attach what I have in my home. In the picture, I have disconnect the drainage hose from the drip tray and insert a blue pneumatic tube just to extend it. I am using the blue tube simply because it's external diameter is equal to the internal diameter of the drainage hose.

I normally pour bleach down the drain pipe and let it be for 15 minutes. Go to the toilet & you will smell the bleach and see bleach exit the drain pipe. (If you can't smell bleach or see it, probably it is choked) Then I pour warm water thru it and wait another 15 minutes. Then I normally just blow into the blue tube. If there is a choke, you will have a tough time blowing. If the drainage is not choke, it will be easy. My drain pipe from bedroom to toilet is at least 20 meters and I had difficulty blowing thru it on my first DIY cleaning. After numerous breath, the gels in the drain pipe finally exit and it was easy to blow into the piping.

Now I clear it this way every 6 months and have no problem.

And if you have a wet & dry vacuum cleaner, vacuuming it (from the toilet end) works too.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2016 by w7_lee

[shibumi 1]

On 15/08/2016 at 4:50 PM, w7_lee said:

Will be easier if the front cover of the fan coil is removed. It will be easier to locate the drainage hose that is connected to the drip tray. The other end of this drain hose will go to the drainage pipe and end in your toilet.

I attach what I have in my home. In the picture, I have disconnect the drainage hose from the drip tray and insert a blue pneumatic tube just to extend it. I am using the blue tube simply because it's external diameter is equal to the internal diameter of the drainage hose.

I normally pour bleach down the drain pipe and let it be for 15 minutes. Go to the toilet & you will smell the bleach and see bleach exit the drain pipe. (If you can't smell bleach or see it, probably it is choked) Then I pour warm water thru it and wait another 15 minutes. Then I normally just blow into the blue tube. If there is a choke, you will have a tough time blowing. If the drainage is not choke, it will be easy. My drain pipe from bedroom to toilet is at least 20 meters and I had difficulty blowing thru it on my first DIY cleaning. After numerous breath, the gels in the drain pipe finally exit and it was easy to blow into the piping.

Now I clear it this way every 6 months and have no problem.

And if you have a wet & dry vacuum cleaner, vacuuming it (from the toilet end) works too.

 

 

I'll see if I can sneak some photos with the front cover removed (during the next round of my ac-servicing; I've someone coming to service the FCU's every 4 mths).

I've also more/less pin-point the drainage of the FCUs in my apartment to end/drain into the sewage? pipe beneath the floor-traps of my toilets. In each floor-trap, there are 2 pipes (total of 4 for 4 FCUs) that exit sideways into the sewage drainage. Now I finally know why sometimes I hear water-flowing sound in my toilets when nobody's using!

I will like to suggest you to be very careful smelling/blowing/breathing into/from/around the blue tube when you have applied chlorine-based bleach into it. Perhaps can use a hand pump/compressed air to jet the dissolved waste out the other hand instead.

Thank you for the wet/dry vacuum tip (I'll probably not buy one as I do see the aircon service team bringing one during their visits).

Btw, thank you for your detailed reply again (you have also helped me in this thread before!)

[Orangy 63]

On 15/08/2016 at 4:50 PM, w7_lee said:

Will be easier if the front cover of the fan coil is removed. It will be easier to locate the drainage hose that is connected to the drip tray. The other end of this drain hose will go to the drainage pipe and end in your toilet.

I attach what I have in my home. In the picture, I have disconnect the drainage hose from the drip tray and insert a blue pneumatic tube just to extend it. I am using the blue tube simply because it's external diameter is equal to the internal diameter of the drainage hose.

I normally pour bleach down the drain pipe and let it be for 15 minutes. Go to the toilet & you will smell the bleach and see bleach exit the drain pipe. (If you can't smell bleach or see it, probably it is choked) Then I pour warm water thru it and wait another 15 minutes. Then I normally just blow into the blue tube. If there is a choke, you will have a tough time blowing. If the drainage is not choke, it will be easy. My drain pipe from bedroom to toilet is at least 20 meters and I had difficulty blowing thru it on my first DIY cleaning. After numerous breath, the gels in the drain pipe finally exit and it was easy to blow into the piping.

Now I clear it this way every 6 months and have no problem.

And if you have a wet & dry vacuum cleaner, vacuuming it (from the toilet end) works too.

 

 

Very good post, will help alot of people, thanks

[w7_lee 11]

I pour in the bleach along the drip tray (before disconnecting the hose from it), helps to remove the algae growing there too. But last service, I found the right way to completely remove the drip tray, so now can bring to toilet to scrub.

When I inhale to blow, of course also disengage my mouth from the hose, so not going to poison me.

Actually, I also watch how the AC service ppl do it on the first time. They weren't doing anything special, so why pay a package? Later like C***fornia Fitness....  I image that the only situation when I would need professional assistance would be if I am going to replace with new set or I need to top up the refrigerant (touch wood), but have not encounter this problem yet.

Now trying to explore removing the blower fan to wash but have not been successful yet.

Edited August 17, 2016 by w7_lee

[Khylie 25]

Really like this thread, bookmarked. This DIY method will help alot of people

[shibumi 1]

Just an update:

It turns out the dripping isn't due to any choke in the drainage pipe. There are multiple drainage "channels" in the structure of a FCU (at least for my Daikin model). These channels are responsible for routing the water to the drainage pipe. For my situation, there are cracks in one of my FCU channels & since water always choose the easiest way out, the water begin "exiting" these cracks instead of routing nicely to the drainage pipe's entrance. The cracks are actually quite tiny hence the dripping isn't regular (once the accumulated water drains out via the crack, its water level dips) , & also doesn't occur immediately after powering on the FCU (the accumulated water needs to hit a certain water level before it can seep out the cracks). Here are the photos of the cracks...

Edited September 24, 2016 by shibumi
Attach photos properly

[w7_lee 11]

Steady.... mystery solved. Good for you.

By the way, you DIY?

[shibumi 1]

6 minutes ago, w7_lee said:

By the way, you DIY?

Nope. My regular aircon servicing coy helped me with it (& didn't charge for the visit; which I'm very surprise).

[CharSiewPau 60]

Nice information TS