# AC drain problem



## Numberz (Jul 31, 2020)

Not certain where to put this exactly, but i need some help figuring out a solution for a problem in the home we purchased. It seems the previous owners had a patio extended and when they did they put their AC drain pipes into a flower bed, and had them loosely covered with mulch. Over time this mulch has turned into dirt and caused a swamp in our side yard. Would love some suggestions to reroute or otherwise manage this differently then it already was.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@Numberz the a/c condensate should drain into your plumbing drain system, and only the secondary drain should go to the exterior like that. I would start by checking the primary drain, as it may be clogged.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

It looks to me like you have multiple drainage problems going on in that part of your yard.

I agree with @Spammage that your secondary drain line should not be draining out that much water unless your primary drain line is clogged. Your primary line should drain into your plumbing system (unless that is not allowed in your area) or to the outside of the house directly. I would check up in your attic to make sure your primary condensate line is draining properly, first. Look for standing water in your drain pan - if you have water there, your line is clogged up and needs to be cleared - I would start there first. You can clear the line with a blast of compressed air, or you can pour bleach into the line to eat away the algae and slime that could be clogging the line.

I always added a second line on my primary drain line with a "T" connector so I could add bleach into the line regularly (usually in Spring and Fall) to keep the line draining freely. You can blow the line clear with compressed air but if it is clogged, don't stand near the exit pipe unless you like being blasted with slime and stinky water....

That box section that cuts across your yard with the holes in the top looks like a drainage feature to allow the runoff from your gutter to have a place to drain and to relieve overflow without blowing out your soil from erosion. That downspout drain needs to have its own drainpipe to get that water out to the street. Whoever built that took a shortcut that is causing water to inundate your soil in that area.

If that PVC pipe is your primary condensate line, whoever plumbed that had no idea what they are doing. Hard to tell from what you have shown in your pictures, but if that is your primary drain, you need to create a pathway to evacuate that water so it does not backup and flood out your A/C....

Your neighbor's side yard is sloped and graded in such a way that all of his runoff runs right away from that house and straight into yours. You are down gradient, and that runoff is just going to sheet flow straight into the same area you are being waterlogged by the other drainage design failures....

If I owned this house, I would call your utilities "call before you dig" hotline, get everything over there marked out, and then I would dig a brand new French drain all the way down the side of the house to the sidewalk, and drain all that water away from your foundation and yard out into the stormwater system where it belongs. I would dig it by hand, have three drain pipes there, and pipe all three water sources out of the entire area to keep it dry.

Your finish grade for your yard is messed up there too. The surface water is going to slide run up to and down your foundation, which is why that flowerbed is filled with gravel. There is no drainage swale in that area to channelize your runoff and move it away from your foundation wall on that side. The flowerbed is filled with gravel and is functioning like an above-grade gravel drainage bed.

Basically, everything I see in that area has been done wrong by someone who had no idea what to do to deal with the drainage. It is a basically a cluster of incomplete measures that have all failed.

Do you know how to do any of this stuff yourself? If not, you need to hire a competent professional.


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## Numberz (Jul 31, 2020)

First off, thank you both for your responses. In my neck of the woods, it's most common for AC to be drained outside as this has been.

I am fairly certain that this is my primary drain lines and comes directly off the air exchanger and that there is a secondary drain off the pan that routs to the eves...no water in the drain pain that i've seen. I've actually added disconnects in the attic to allow for clearing out the condensate line. I think that originally this was routed to an exterior wall (about 10 feet from where you see) and then when the previous homeowners had a patio extension poured they then routed it under the poured slab. This runs from the attic down two stories to this point. I think originally this discharge area was filled with gravel as a dry sump for this but i suspect that the previous owners had someone mulch everything when they were trying to sell the house which covered up this up and contributed to the problem.

The grading in the photo is deceptive. My house is at a higher elevation then his and and both of ours drain down hill into the swale. I would estimate that ours is between 1 & 2ft drop over 10ft in this area. (My biggest concern with my downspout is just getting the water away from the flowerbed/foundation...it's never been a problem before or during the seasons when the AC was not running). There is little to no worry of our house getting flooded. The black plastic flat corrugated pipe was put in by me in an attempt to try to diagnose my "Swamp" problem by getting the rain water away from swampy area (its been a crazy few rainy weeks).

As for options, I'm not certain that we are allowed to divert water into our street by code(i'm looking into this specifics). My current thought is to add a catch basin under the down spout and plumb the pvc AC drain into it then divert that down slope or into a larger drainage system to the street (if allowed). The concerns i have with this is having a comparatively low flow system from the AC going into something where it could become stagnant due to lack of flow.

I will try to get some better photos to explain the slope of this area as well as the point where the drain line exits the house and gets buried.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

@Numberz

Yeah, I was kind of uncertain there about who had done what...so I just tried to call it like I saw it.

I could have answered it in a shorter way by saying blow it all up and start over, but not helpful. :lol:

There are ways to terminate a drain pipe in your own yard that would work in your situation.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/NDS-6-in-L-x-6-3-4-in-W-x-4-in-dia-Pop-up-Emitter/1173911

And I would drain the gutter into a catch basin and then into a buried drain pipe.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/NDS-12-in-dia-Catch-Basin/1165799


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

@Numberz

Here is a short video that may help you find solutions you can use:


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@Numberz well, I've never heard of the primary drain being routed to the exterior like that. I can imagine if mine was set up that way how swampy the area of intended drainage would be. Are there any plumbing vent stacks in the attic that you could tie into? That seems like the least invasive and least expensive option as long as you aren't violating any building codes.


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## Numberz (Jul 31, 2020)

I've thought about the Vent stack idea but have read that it can be dangerous if the ac p trap dries out and sewer gases are introduced into the hvac system.


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## driver_7 (Jun 28, 2018)

My house in Arkansas was the same, the primary condensate was drained to the exterior. It created a huge mess in that part of the yard. I ended up putting in a basin and connecting to my buried downspout drainage system.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

Same here. Common enough that everyone's drains outside. I had it routed from the units to a flower bed but overtime it was soggy.

I ended up with drainage issues there, and to fix it, added a catch basin at the fence, tied in the gutter and had it buried down the slope to a popup. Routed the pvc pipe for the AC down the house and fence and have it draining into the top side of the basin.

Not overly worried about stagnant water. I flush it out once in a while but we get enough rain it moves decent enough.

No more wet areas!


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## Numberz (Jul 31, 2020)

Better photo of area in question's slope.

I think i'm gonna throw a catch basin under the down spout and route the AC lines into that. Run a pop up under the gate outside the fenced area. In the mean time i just extended the drains away from the problem area with 10ft of PVC pipe.


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## georgiadad (Aug 18, 2018)

Think about putting either a dry well or french drain there.


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## Numberz (Jul 31, 2020)

thinking about maybe something like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW7waK-j5Kc


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Numberz said:


> Better photo of area in question's slope.
> 
> I think i'm gonna throw a catch basin under the down spout and route the AC lines into that. Run a pop up under the gate outside the fenced area. In the mean time i just extended the drains away from the problem area with 10ft of PVC pipe.


Yeah, I see what you mean - that is a much better picture. There is a nice drainage swale there.

I would still dig a trench and bury the drain pipes, and then run them down the slope to daylight.

Otherwise, with your neighbor's downspout and your downspout, you are going to have a puddle build up every time it rains and that area will be a swamp until it drains off and dries out.

It will be a bit of digging and backfilling, but in the end it will improve your property quite a lot. :thumbup:


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## wingless (Jan 28, 2019)

When I changed the area near my old AC condenser from it sitting on a concrete pad, surrounded by dirt, grass and weeds, w/ the pipe dripping air handler condensation onto the nearby ground, to instead having the new level hurricane-rated concrete pad, surrounded by pavers sloping slightly away from the house, but this time having a 4" drain pipe going to a new French drain, now buried under the newly installed pavers.

Now, instead of that area getting wet (ground before / pavers now), the vertical 3/4" PVC condensation drain drips onto the ground-level grating on my 4" French drain pipe and is dissipated into the nearby ground w/o issue.

The result is exactly what I hoped from this upgrade.


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