Prevent Another Emergency Drain Line Clog!
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Raising awareness of what really is creating an emergency drain line clog and how to prevent it on your house!
Have you ever had your air conditioner emergency drain line back up due to a clog in the line? If you live where there is a noticeable mud dauber wasp population in the area (AKA dirt dauber wasp), your secondary condensate line was most likely clogged with a dirt dauber nest.
**Spoiler alert**
If this is you and you just want the solution, check out the Dauber Stopper. This isn’t a recipe blog and I’m not going to tell you a story and make you scroll to the bottom to hunt for the recipe. 😉 If you want the full on explanation, a summary of the Dauber Stopper (a full review is in the works) and raise your awareness of a similar potential problem in other places of your home, read on.
Why are mud daubers so attracted to emergency drain lines?
A gaping hole in your home, which is unused most of the time, is an open invitation for insects to make a home protected from the elements. That’s pretty much how you can describe your emergency backup drain line from your air conditioner.
The open end of an emergency drain line–what you’ll find on most homes.
While other insects and debris can collect over time in this rarely used PVC pipe, there is nothing quite like a mud dauber nest. Made out of hardened mud, a mud dauber wasp nest can easily block the entire line of a small PVC pipe.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how a mud dauber nest this size can easily block an entire 3/4″ emergency drain line.
Compare a mud dauber nest to a wasp or bee nest:
A bee or wasp nest is paper thin with lots of holes, whereas a mud dauber nest is a solid block of mud with few holes.
Dust and dirt enter into an air conditioning system as does dusty insulation from your average attic. As hot summer temperatures increase in a humid environment, the regular condensate line can clog with debris from use. It may even freeze. When this happens the air conditioner has a backup emergency line because this is a regular occurrence.
However, if the emergency line is clogged, there is nowhere for the condensation to go but to fill up the catch pan. Once the catch pan is full there is only one more place to go: down into your house! Costly repairs, lengthy insurance claims, and a major interruption to your home and work life come next.
A real picture of verified Stycobatrus (AKA toxic black mold) growing as the result of a slowly leaking undetected (and hard to detect in this case!) condensate line.
The other gotcha…if a dauber nest is left in place, the mud daubers will return to use it again…and again…
This backup phenomenon is not just limited to air conditioners.
As high efficiency machines become the norm, any high efficiency gas appliance producing condensate is also subject to backups and water damage repairs. Condensing units with primary lines to the sewer and secondary lines outside all require backup emergency drain lines. They also require emergency blow off lines as well, doubling the amount of open PVC pipes running out of our homes.
High efficiency dryers, tankless water heaters, and air conditioners all fall in this category where the emergency lines are rarely used.
As we include more of these appliances in our homes, we are more likely to experience backups where there weren’t any drain lines before. More unused holes in our building envelope means more chances for dirt daubers to build nests.
Emergency drain lines for two high efficiency tankless gas water heaters: backup drain pan lines and emergency blow off lines.
How do you prevent mud daubers from taking up residence in your backup drain lines?
The Dauber Stopper prevents mud daubers, other insects and outside debris from collecting in your drain lines.
The Dauber Stopper is a clever new invention that just hit the market last year. A creation of an air conditioning tech, the inventor observed this mud dauber nest phenomenon on the vast majority of backup related service calls while working in the area. Rather than continuing to bank on the aftermath, he decided to come up with a way to prevent it.
There is no getting around, prevention is a great way to keep yourself out of the insurance claim shenanigans, disruption to your life at home and at work in addition to dealing with contractors. You can forget that stress with this easy and comparatively cheap blockade against outside elements.
The Dauber Stopper can attach to a line vertically or horizontally, allowing proper drainage from a line on the side of the house, at an angle coming off a roof or extending straight down through a soffit. If your condensate line is the standard 3/4 inch or anything below 1-1/2″, the pieces included in the kit has you covered.
Installing the Dauber Stopper
There are two ways to install the Dauber Stopper.
The first method installs the cover directly over any pipe less than 1-1/2 inches across. A flange is attached on a soffit or exterior wall with the four screws. Then, the screen screws onto the flange.
If you use the flange the Dauber Stopper has the secondary benefit of effectively blocking any gaps surrounding the condensate line. This prevents insects or other smaller animals like snakes, geckos and lizards from setting up shop inside your siding or soffit.
The second installation method is a pressure fit reducer that slides over the 3/4″ PVC pipe coming out of your house. Exactly like the method above, the mesh screen screws onto the reducer. Unlike the last method, this one installs in about five seconds (ten if you are slow at screwing the screen in place).
Both ways are simple and straightforward.
Prevention is something to think about before it happens to you.
Placed low or high, condensate, blow off, or drain pan backup lines are the perfect home for insect nests. This is especially true for mud daubers, who make homes out of solidified mud, quite effectively blocking the emergency line. Don’t allow mud daubers to create an emergency inside your home when condensate starts pouring through your ceiling and/or walls.
Instead, entirely avoid another emergency drain line clog! Prevent another call to the A/C company this year by installing Dauber Stoppers on all your backup condensate lines.
Did you have an AC service tech blow your emergency drain line out and ask what it was? Please leave your answer in the comments below!
This post was in no way sponsored or solicited. Modern AC Products, the manufacturer of the Dauber Stopper, did give us this one to try out when we stopped by their booth at the Houston Home and Garden Show in October. Their director of sales and business development was upbeat and genuine at the end of what was a lower turnout for the event. You could feel the disappointing vibe in the air–and see the empty booths. But between this positive meeting and discovering the backstory, it makes me want to support a new company with a good product. It is rare when you find someone who doesn’t want more business (in terms of calls of distress), and instead decide to do something positive to prevent ordinary homeowners like you and me from experiencing a costly heartache.
Good job, Modern AC Products!
