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AC Handler leaking water. Please help?

5,511 537 June 12, 2015 at 10:41 AM
Hi all,

Slick Dealers are collectively the smartest group of people I know, so I thought someone would be able to help.

I have an Bryant FA4ANF036 AC handler that has me stumped. From what I understand, there should be a drip tray right above the filter. The only drip tray I have is *vertical*, running up and down the left side, seemingly useless. So water is dripping directly onto the filter, off of the washboard- looking thing (sorry - don't know what it's called). I've attached a photo that will be more helpful than my explanation -- you can see the vertical black drip tray on the left and the water that has dripped onto the filter.

Is my drip tray truly misplaced, or should water not be leaking from where I described? How can I fix either issue? I cleaned out the condensate line and replaced the condensate pump; (basement unit), so that's not the issue. Thank you and +4 for any helpful advice.
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Somewheres 'Round About Atlanta Joined Sep 2004 L0: Clearly Invisible.
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Schrödinger's Frog
> bubble2 19,381 Posts
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Frogstar
06-12-2015 at 11:26 AM.
06-12-2015 at 11:26 AM.
Quote from Rebate Addict :
Hi all,

Slick Dealers are collectively the smartest group of people I know, so I though someone would be able to help.
I'm sorry Comfort
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Baldilocks
> bubble2 41,030 Posts
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emelvee
06-12-2015 at 11:47 AM.
06-12-2015 at 11:47 AM.
Quote from Frogstar :
I'm sorry Comfort
Iagree
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Dr. J
06-12-2015 at 11:50 AM.
06-12-2015 at 11:50 AM.
the "Washboard" is a heat exchanger... like a radiator. The coolant is pumped through the copper tubes which is cold and acts as a heat sink to the house air that is forced through the fins of the exchanger by the fan. The cold pipes will also tend to condensate water vapor/humidity in the house air, which SHOULD drip/run off the exchanger into a tray to a condensate pump and out of the house or at least into some sort of drain. Clearly the filter should not be soaked.

http://www.atexac.com/public/file...FA4BNF.pdf

Looks like in your poor quality photo that the 2 pipe-looking connections on the lower LHS are for drain connections per pg 16 in the pdf
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Last edited by Dr. J June 12, 2015 at 11:56 AM.
Joined Feb 2008
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> bubble2 6,831 Posts
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Bareborn
06-12-2015 at 12:33 PM.
06-12-2015 at 12:33 PM.
Yea that picture is rubbish. And you need new glasses.
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The Po-Po is here.
> bubble2 3,398 Posts
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genghiskhan
06-12-2015 at 01:32 PM.
06-12-2015 at 01:32 PM.
Did you take that picture with a barbie camara?
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Rebate Addict
06-12-2015 at 02:15 PM.
06-12-2015 at 02:15 PM.
Quote from Dr. J :
the "Washboard" is a heat exchanger... like a radiator. The coolant is pumped through the copper tubes which is cold and acts as a heat sink to the house air that is forced through the fins of the exchanger by the fan. The cold pipes will also tend to condensate water vapor/humidity in the house air, which SHOULD drip/run off the exchanger into a tray to a condensate pump and out of the house or at least into some sort of drain. Clearly the filter should not be soaked.

http://www.atexac.com/public/file...FA4BNF.pdf


Looks like in your poor quality photo that the 2 pipe-looking connections on the lower LHS are for drain connections per pg 16 in the pdf
Thanks, Dr. J! Yes, there was a drain pipe in the lower LHS that I had removed to clean. I didn't realize the picture was so crappy. I'm adding another, taken with a better camera. I had removed the AC filter in this photo. I annotated it to show how/where the water is dripping. Is that normal for water to drip straight down from the heat exchanger like that, or should it run down the grooves of the exchanger? If it's normal, then my problem is that there is no drip pan in the right spot to catch the water.


Quote from genghiskhan :
Did you take that picture with a barbie camara?
laugh out loud Close. Original Droid phone. Probably the only one existence actually still being used.Stick Out Tongue
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Last edited by Rebate Addict June 12, 2015 at 02:22 PM.
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My first name is Crazy
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Joe Davola
06-12-2015 at 02:17 PM.
06-12-2015 at 02:17 PM.
Need I tell you where you should PM all your AC handler leaking questions? laugh out loud
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Joined Sep 2004
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> bubble2 5,511 Posts
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06-12-2015 at 02:19 PM.
06-12-2015 at 02:19 PM.
Quote from Joe Davola :
Need I tell you where you should PM all your AC handler leaking questions? laugh out loud

Is Biker Eric still around? Smilie
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Dr. J
06-12-2015 at 06:11 PM.
06-12-2015 at 06:11 PM.
Quote from Rebate Addict :
Thanks, Dr. J! Yes, there was a drain pipe in the lower LHS that I had removed to clean. I didn't realize the picture was so crappy. I'm adding another, taken with a better camera. I had removed the AC filter in this photo. I annotated it to show how/where the water is dripping. Is that normal for water to drip straight down from the heat exchanger like that, or should it run down the grooves of the exchanger? If it's normal, then my problem is that there is no drip pan in the right spot to catch the water.




laugh out loud Close. Original Droid phone. Probably the only one existence actually still being used.Stick Out Tongue

Which way does the air flow - upwards?

From the PDF there are various ways to install this - upflow, downflow, sideflow, etc. Looking at pg 5 the default/factory setup is side flow - imagine your image rotated CCW. In this orientation (horiz) the drip pan is in the correct place.

I can't see any way in the current configuration that one could drain off the water while still allowing air to flow through the xchanger, meaning one cannot simply take a horizontal unit and make it a vertical flow. Even the drain piping is odd - it goes UPWARD from the drain? I am amazed that at this age the unit hasn't caused all sorts of problems or rotted out.
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My first name is Crazy
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Joe Davola
06-12-2015 at 08:52 PM.
06-12-2015 at 08:52 PM.
Quote from Rebate Addict :
Is Biker Eric still around? Smilie
He is, but you should try the true expert.
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My # is bigger than yours
> bubble2 36,704 Posts
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SnakePlisken
06-12-2015 at 10:11 PM.
06-12-2015 at 10:11 PM.
do you live in a double wide?
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