Direct vent furnace leaking water?

ChrisJ

This quesiton is for my knowledge only, I will not be making any repairs to this system as it is not mine.



As many on the wall know I often wonder about things and probably often ask dumb questions but that hasent stopped me yet. :)  I was helping a friend install their home theater equipment Friday in their new house and noticed the furnace was leaking water from one of the 3" PVC lines.  I don't know if it was exhaust or intake and didn't really look into it as they are having someone come out to work on it.



So my question is, should there ever be water in either the exhaust or intake on a high efficiency direct vent furnace?  And if so, how is it normally handled?  Is this why the furnaces appear to have a second drain besides the evaporator condensate drain?





Thank you for your time.

heatpro02920

Leaking outside or inside?

Is it leaking outside the house like a dripping faucet out the exhaust, I take it this is a 90+ condensing unit? If so no worries {depending on make/model I suppose but for the most part no worries, its condensing}, if its leaking inside on the floor then yes I would call the installer or a qualified tech...



C'mon Chris lets see pics of this theater, I am an A/v guy {not professional, and much more on the audio side than the video, I just finished the sound system in my front Parlor, Music only 1200+watt 2.2 system, about as direct a path as you can get, digital signal goes from the IPAD to the DAC to the Amps to the Speakers and to your ears...

ChrisJ

Pics

I'm sorry but I didn't take any pictures of that setup.  I'm not a pro either, just do it for friends and family.



What I can show you which I think may interest you is an amplifier I designed with the help of two friends.  They were to replace the original amplifiers in my pair of 1970s Powered Advents which apparently decide to oscillate at random times and burn up out of no where.  I was in the habbit of feeling the heatsink from time to time to make sure the bias wasn't drifting.  The last time I touched it, went to use the bathroom and when I came out the overload light was on and both woofer output darlingtons were shorted as well as the drivers.  I was not impressed that it went from normal to dead in 5 minutes.





The new amplifiers are 200W RMS for woofer and 50W RMS for tweeter using LM3886 chipamps.  They will do 220W + 59W at clipping into a 8 ohm resistive load.  Woofer amplifiers as well as crossover are direct coupled.  Woofer amplifier uses intergrators along with 0.01% resistors to maintain a very low DC offset around 1mv or less.  Crossover is an active12dB linkwitz-riley type which matches the original crossovers as far as response but with the benefits of a LR type crossover.  The power supply is a 500VA transformer connected to 54,000uf worth of filtering.  The speakers are driven by an APT Holman preamp with a Technics SL1800 MK2.  I also have a Denon DVD-2910 I use for SACDs and cds.  The amplifiers were finished in 2008 and have worked flawless.

I also have another home built 70+70W amplifier driving a pair of 1990s A/D/S bookshelf speakers I use at work.  I used to be into tube amplifiers, mainly Fisher until I ended up using a Bryston 4B driving two pairs of new large Advent speakers.  I have two more pairs of new large advents as well as a pair of Advent /1s as well.  I decided vintage Advents were the speakers for me after falling in love with the sound of two pairs of 1950s KLH 6s.  To me the Advents are the same thing but with better bass and much higher power handling.



So anyway here are the pictures.

https://picasaweb.google.com/thetube0a3/EV?authkey=Gv1sRgCPy-mdvB3qikfQ#

heatpro02920

Nice job Chris

I rebuilt {well recapped} the amplifier in my wurlitzer 1080 Jukebox {I restored the box myself, took 5 years and cost me around $7K not including the $5K for the box unrestored} but I have been offered $15K for it so not a bad way to spend 5 years I guess... And I have seen the DIY amplifier kits on parts-express.com and have been interested but never pulled the trigger....



I like the old advents, and the old Klipsch a friend of mine has some cornwalls that sound amazing... I like tube stuff to, but not for sound quality, more for the ambiance, I have an intergrated tube amp with some tekton lores in my bedroom that are nice for what they are, but for the money that costs you can get a real nice system...

ChrisJ

Tubes

Yep, I was big into tubes and many people say you can use all of their power because they clip softly.



Problem was I never had enough power for KLH 6s. Then when I got the Bryston 4B and hooked it up and it bottomed the woofers out like they were toys I realized this was what I've been looking for. Years ago I preached about how great 7591s were. Now I'm all about chipamps. Who would've thought?

unclejohn

Should'nt Leak

Water inside or outside. Drain should always be pitched back toward the furnace. Most likly a bad glue joint if leaking from the ex. pipe. If leaking at the furnace a lose clamp or clogged trap maybe.

ChrisJ

Leaking

So that is why the burners have a drain. I always wondered why that was there, now I know.



It was leaking at a joint near the furnace so I'm guessing the installer will have to redo the joint, not a big deal.



I didn't realize forced air furnaces could be "condensing" as I always saw the term used in regards to hot water boilers. He had said the furnace was 98% AFUE though I personally have not seen one this high but I guess its possible.

heatpro02920

chip amps are the way to go if not for show

Chip amps are definitely the way to go for cost, sq, reliability, longevity, ect, but they don't glow lol, I only have the one tube system and the tube amps in the jukeboxes of course..



My uncle just built a system with 2 carver black beauties powering a pair of focal towers, they sound good and loud but they were $13K for the pair!!! I have never speant that much on an amp, I like the emo stuff for my needs, well built good locking they last forever, and plenty of power...