Trane XE 60 leaking water from AC

dook7

Greetings Folks,

Trane XE 60 leaking water from AC

I've got a Mom in her nineties and an old Trane (probably 35 years old?) and one of them is acting up. Not my Mom.

Last year same time had condenser problems but replaced all the electrical parts outside and rinsed coil and was okay. We are average poor and can ill afford the prices of repairmen. I am like most farmers on a small holding, barely surviving.

The Trane is leakin water and I noticed the temperature in the house was not as cold as I
expected after running a couple hours. It didn’t drop the temp asfast as expected. The leak was on the floor and inside near the fan compartment.

What I did:

1 Checked drain line from evap unit. Okay and removed some debries near drain hole on basement floor. Ran plumber snake into evap opening to see if blockage. None.

Ran AC and same problem.

2 Then check air filter but knew was okay because changed in May before AC even needed.

3 Then opened up evap panel to check condensate drain pan for blockage or leak.

Water was in pan so appeared to be okay for leaks. I then vacuumed out water and black
little pieces that looked like a rubber coating of some sort. Perhaps the tray had been coated originally – I do not know.

After debries removed I pored in water opposite drain line and checked if was going out. I
did not see leakage and it flowed out.

I was thinking maybe the black pieces had caused a dam and then overflowed the pan.

4 Next I checked the inside of the Evap coils for dirt. Just a bit found, probably less than 1 % of
coil area. But I vacuumed it out anyhow.

Result: No change.

5 Then while running I looked at drain going into floor and didn’t see any water coming out so I disconnected pipe near where comes out of Evap unit. Nothing coming out. So shut off AC.

I was tired and just put small tray under line (3”) out of Evap but no water was coming out
anyhow.

In AM I went to see about reconnecting and the tray was full of water. That is the tray to
catch any drips I put there. The water had come out at some point while the AC was off.

Today I am running AC for short time and see that humidity quikly dropped from 63% to 50 in
less than 30 minutes but temperature still slow to fall.

Note: I had to run AC even
with problem because of Mom needed cooling.

Current situation; The above symptoms happened at around 90 degrees outside with high humidity. Yesterday in high eighties I ran AC and got very little water on floor and none in bottom area where fan is and water was previously. The side panels where evap coils face were dripping condensation.
Trying to puzzle out and ask experiebced folk for help. I’m
confused about symptoms changing when I have not actually done much.

Should I get rid of Mom or fix
AC? Thanks in advance/\.

mattmia2

is the coil icing?

EBEBRATT-Ed

I am assuming this is a up flow furnace with a coil?

maybe you have done some of this already:

Plug the drain coming out of the drain pan and flood the drain pan to see if it is leaking. If it is not leaking, then it is overflowing.

If it is overflowing and not draining, then I would suspect some weird airflow issue. An up-flow furnace shouldn't need a trap on the drain, but I always put traps on every unit so you could try that. Drop down from the coil a long way to get some head on the trap then come up 3" and go back down worth a try. Put a tee on where it comes out of the coil with the branch to the coil. This will let you look in the tee. You can try it with the tee open like a vent

mattmia2

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1899872#Comment_1899872

or it is low on charge so the part of the coil with some liquid under too little pressure is icing and causing the outside of the case to sweat and is then dripping off when the cycle ends and it melts

HVACNUT

@dook7 , some pictures might help. If you're using a phone, take pics with it then click the portrait icon on the bottom of the page to post.

For now I'll assume the air handler is in the basement? And I'm thinking horizontal because you were able to access the drain pan and the inlet side of the evaporator.

Is the drain trapped? Some Trane units put the evaporator in front of the fan where a trap isn't really needed. But if the evaporator is behind the fan, a trap is needed. And the should never be water in the blower compartment.

If the drain seems correct, run the AC for a good hour straight. Set the thermostat to 60° At the end of the hour with the unit still running, check the suction line (which is the larger pipe that's insulated) where it goes into the evaporator. If the pipe is icing, or even frosty, then there's other avenues to go down. The pipe should be cold and sweating.

How is the airflow after an hour? Same or worse? Is there buildup on the fan blades? Isulation in the blower compartment is secure so the fan doesn't pull it up?

On days that outdoor temperatures are higher than design for your area, its common for the AC system to NOT maintain set temperature, but it does seem there is an issue to be found.

dook7

THANKS All. Will collect info asked and report back shortly.

dook7

dook7

neilc

show the condensate drain coming from the coil pan to the floor or pump

pecmsg

where are the connectors to prevent rub outs?

where is the condensate drain?

EBEBRATT-Ed

You can see the condensate drain coming out of the coil behind the Sheetmetal that is folded back.

neilc

but can we see what it does or doesn't do from there?

HVACNUT

Have you checked to see if the suction line is freezing up? Water falling down into the blower compartment isn't good.