Flushing the Condensate Line

It’s been a few days, and we’ve continued to catch the condensate overflow with rags (replacing them every few hours). Despite my best efforts, the condensate line continues to appear to be frozen… and has been backed up.

But around 5PM tonight, I noticed the condensate line looks… lower. And it appears that something thawed or moved enough, to where the condensate is actually flowing again.

I took the inspection camera I purchased (during “The Squirrel Incident of 2023”), and was able to look at the base of the furnace drain pan.

It appears that the connection between the drain pan and the secondary PVC line wasn’t good… and that this was the cause for the water spilling out from our ceiling, several days ago.

Texting with Bob, we both had the same idea: with the condensate line now thawed and seemingly open – it was a good test to blow some compressed air down the line, to dislodge anything still stuck in there… and to also confirm that the line was open/free.

While I had this setup upstairs, Liz was down in the basement, watching the end of the PVC pipe.

After a few short bursts (and a few sustained bursts)… Liz was able to confirm that a ton of water started to come out.

There’s a run of PVC in the basement that functions as a trap – and it’s expected that it should basically be filled with a good amount of condensate. The reaction we saw confirms that there isn’t anything else foreign blocking the pipe, and as long as we don’t freeze up again… we should be good.

An odd bit of troubleshooting, as it involved an air compressor. But I feel a bit better now, knowing that our primary condensate line is open and behaving as expected.

We’ll see how things hold up once the next deep freeze comes. But for now, we seem to be in the clear.

Related:
Deep Freeze Issues, Part Two
Deep Freeze Issues, Part One
The Squirrel Incident