Did I break a seal in my furnace?

[TechBoyJK]

Last thursday, we had a sewer backup that required a late night visit from roto rooter. I first noticed it when I was doing laundry and water started backup out out of the drain for the washing machine. At first it was water, then I saw a turd come out and knew things might get nasty quick.

Near by, there is a rough in for a toilet that is surrounded by bare concrete. I opened this pipe up so that any backup would come out of that, rather than the laundry drain (which is attached to a wall in a corner.

I figured the toilet drain would be the best place for it to come out, as I could more easily manage a mess coming out that wouldn't be near anything other than the other drain.

That said, when it did start overflowing, I moved the drain tube for the furnace so that it wasn't touching the ground and wouldn't get hit by the sewage that would be headed for the same drain.

Unfortunately, I forgot to put the drain tube back, and I think since it couldn't drain, it backed up and maybe broke a seal. Now we're getting a little bit of water coming out from under the furnace even though I have the drain tube back in place.

1) Can I shorten this tube so it has a straight shot to the drain? The curve in it isn't level and even if I lay it flat, I see water building up in the line. If I step on the tube to make it level, water starts pouring out.

2) Is it possible that having the drain tube kinked for a day or two would have caused enough water pressure build up to break a seal?


Furnace/Leak/Hose

 

[ISAslot]

Maybe there's an internal tray for the water. When it backed up it overflowed to the bottom of the unit where it accumulated and now slowly leaks out. If true it should stop once it dries out.

 

[Paperdoc]

ISAslot is just about right. I doubt there is an overflow tray. BUT with the drain hose elevated temporarily, the condensate would back up inside the furnace, and collect in the very bottom of it. Then it would slowly leak out.

VERY likely the bottom part of your furnace is where the main fan is that blows the warm air up around the house. It will have a removable front panel on that bottom fan chamber - probably just slides up and out. If you remove it you will be able to look in around the fan assembly with a flashlight to see if there is water in the bottom. When you do that, the may well be a safety switch that detects the removal of the panel and shuts down the entire furnace to prevent you from being injured by the running fan.

You could try to remove any water accumulation, or you can just let it dry out by itself. After all, with the fan running there is air flowing through that chamber to dry it out. When you replace the panel the safety switch should be activated again and the fan and furnace should start working again.

You don't need to shorten the tube and get it completely flat on the floor. As long as the highest point in its slight kink is LOWER than the tube's outlet from the furnace, it will drain. If you look closely near where the tube comes out of the furnace you will probably see that, although part of the tube is full, the part just coming out of the furnace is empty above a couple if inches off the floor.

 

[boomerang]

There is no "seal" to break. As was said, pull the access panel(s) on the furnace and try to dry out the area as best you can or wait until it evaporates on its own.

We spend the winter months in FL. The grand kids were playing in the basement over the holidays and I did not know that they had knocked the drain tube loose inside the furnace. We left for FL several days later. We came back from four months out of town to evidence that there was water coming out of the furnace. The water was shut off so I knew that it was the condensate drain that was dribbling out water that was then traveling through the bottom portion of the furnace and leaking out onto the floor. There was no permanent damage of any kind.

HE furnaces create water as a byproduct of combustion. The condensate drain directs it to a drain. The other sources of water are a humidifier if there is one and from the evaporator coil if you have A/C. In my case they all feed into one line that then goes into a floor drain. There is no pressure created anywhere. The humidifier will drain any excess water that is not vaporized into the air flowing through the ductwork, the A/C will dehumidify the air and the water that results will flow out through the drain and as I said, the furnace will create water in small amounts as a byproduct of the combustion process. Nothing is pressurized in your system, it drains through gravity as does mine.