AC Unit Problem / DC Question

[Denise Palko]

I have a basement shop that, due to work committments, I haven't spent too much time in lately. I haven't even walked downstairs in two months.

To my surprise, this week, I went down for a look around and saw a large pool of water in the basement around the air conditioning unit. The water collection tray under the coils was backed up with a lot of gunk. (I also found the plastic knock-out for the connection point to the drainage pipe.) I was able to clean out the collection tray, flush out the drainage pipe (also filled with a muddy, gunk), and wash out the pump which pushes the water to the outside (not to the main, basement sump pump). I feel somewhat fortunate that it's fixed and didn't require a service call or even a new part.

Here's my question... The heater / AC and water heater share space with the workshop. I do not have any dust collection or air cleaning system. With all of the "mud" / dirt found in the AC unit, is it likely that the dust from the tools was the source of the problem? The coils were behind a completely sealed and taped off area of the AC, so I am not sure how it got so filled with crud.

The HVAC is only 6 years old and my shop is relatively new... only 2 years old or so. I am a hobbiest and haven't logged many shop hours this year -- although I did work on one medum-size project in the spring / early summer.

Is it probable that the root cause is shop dust? I do not seem to have any problems with dust coming into the house via the vents. Is this the excuse (uh, I mean, reason) that I needed to invest in a DC?

Thanks for any insights.

[Al Willits]

Standing water is prob the cause, but ya dust collecting on the evap coil and then dripping down onto the pan wouldn't help.

Make sure the evap pan is slightly tilted towards the drain, they shouldn't be level or you'll get pooling of the water.

Also condensate drain pumps do need occasional maintenance as they will gunk up over time.

Al

[Gary Muto]

Is this the excuse (uh, I mean, reason) that I needed to invest in a DC?

Thanks for any insights.
[/quote]

I recently bought a dust collector and air filter in anticipation for a drum sander that I plan to buy within the next year. I was not excited about this as I saw it as a necessity to using a drum sander in a basement shop. I am now very pleased to see how well both unit work while I'm sawing, routing and sanding. I'm sorry I waited so long. I thought maybe this would reduce my clean up time. It does, significantly, and I'm amazed at how quickly the room is cleared of the fine dust that give you the sawdust smell (which I liked). I'm breathing much easier now and cleaning less.

[Lou Ferrarini]

I believe the stuff is called "Brown Algae". Mine stopped up like that a few years ago. I put some bleach down my condensate line once a year to keep it at bay.

[Denise Palko]

Brown Algae, this sounds exactly like what I found. It sort-of looked like wet, fine sawdust. That's what had me thinking it was shop related.

I'll try the bleach tip as part of my maintenance when I change the air filter.

Thanks.

[Chuck Lenz]

Denise, you need to tell us what type of power tools your useing in your basement shop.

[Lee Schierer]

If the air from the shop is being sucked into an air return, then sawdust could be part of what you are seeing, but the filter in the air handler should be trapping that. You can install a filter on the air returns from the basement if you are concerned about it to catch any sawdust in the air.