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PSA: cleaning pipe to ac little pump


school17777
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Our furnace was leaking on Sunday.  Dh and his brother thought the little pump needed replaced, so I picked up a new one yesterday.  Dh put it on and the same thing happened.  He figured we would have to call a plumber.  I asked him to ask his dad to run over first to see if he could find anything else (ac and furnace were working fine, just leaking at the furnace).  Fil comes over and pulls off the cap to the pipe that runs down to the pump and he can see it’s clogged.  He asks the last time we cleaned it.  Never in 14 years.  He said that’s something you are supposed to check often when running your ac.  We never knew.  We cleaned out with baking soda, vinegar, and hot water.  Tons of guck came out and then a gush of water that was blocked by the guck.

Maybe this tip will help someone else!

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Yep.  We have had ours back up and cause serious water damage in the past.  We pour vinegar down it, and blow it out with the blower every few months now.  

Hmmmm.  Due to do that soon. Thanks for the reminder!

We also have a wireless leak detector that emails us every week, and will alert our phones (and sound an alarm) if it detects water where it shouldn’t be.  We have this for the hot water heater, too, and it’s saved us!

 

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29 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Yep.  We have had ours back up and cause serious water damage in the past.  We pour vinegar down it, and blow it out with the blower every few months now.  

Hmmmm.  Due to do that soon. Thanks for the reminder!

We also have a wireless leak detector that emails us every week, and will alert our phones (and sound an alarm) if it detects water where it shouldn’t be.  We have this for the hot water heater, too, and it’s saved us!

 

What is a blower?  I’m picturing a leaf blower.

Tell me more about the wireless water detectors!  The only reason this was discovered was because we had family over and the kids were playing hide and seek in the basement.  Otherwise, it may have leaked and gone undetected for days.  

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Yes!  We take the cordless leaf blower and use that.  Learned to do it from an HVAC guy.

We have the zircon leak alert WiFi detectors from amazon.  They’ve been great.  Alarm and email if there’s a leak.  Also a “no leak” email weekly.

Our hot water heater came with one, and that one alerts a smart phone with a notification only if there’s a leak.

 

 

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