Rain is a Good Thing

There is a popular country song that starts with these lyrics:

My daddy spent his life lookin' up at the skyHe'd cuss, kick the dust, sayin' son it's way to dryIt clouds up in the city, the weather man complainsBut where I come from, rain is a good thing

Rain is a good thing and I won't complain when we finally get some.  It has been really, really dry for us and it resulted in poor yields in the garden.  Furthermore, the pasture isn't growing which has caused us to have to feed the cows hay - hay that we normally aren't feeding in this quantity until frost has killed the grass.  The lack of rain is expensive!

An empty rain gauge

Like the song describes, lots of city folks don't like rain, but I do.  My eyes are always on the horizon, looking for thunderheads and praying they'll find their way to Jefferson Davis Parish.  Most of the times lately, it rains all around us, but not on us.  In June we got 3.4 inches, in July 2 inches, and in August 2.5 inches total of the wet stuff at our house.  That's just not enough.

Just this afternoon I was thinking about when I was playing high school football.  During the sweltering hot practices, I would scan the clouds, wishing for a rainstorm that would cool down things and bring some relief.  Here I am again, just like in high school, praying for refreshment from water from above.

   

Not much water in the rain collection barrels

Last week I almost got water from above, but not the kind I was praying for.  I walked into the attic to put something away and heard, "Drip, Drip, Drip."  I walked over to the air handler for our air conditioning unit and saw an unwelcome sight - water was dripping from the unit into the emergency pan.  I shut down the unit and read that there is a primary pan that drains outside through piping.  When water gets in the emergency pan, you've got problems, generally caused by a plugged drain line.

Water in the emergency pan.  Oh no!

I recently saw an advertisement for an air conditioning company with the clever slogan, "We fix what your husband tried to fix and broke."  Nevertheless and throwing caution to the wind, I got my tools and started taking things apart.

Let's see what makes this thing tick

I took the side panels off and it didn't look pretty with all the rust, but this was not my problem.  At the central left of the photo below, you can see a black orifice.  There was a PVC pipe glued there and hard piped into the unit.  There was no way to take it apart other than cutting the line in two with a hacksaw.  I was at the point of no return.  As I cut through the PVC pipe, water began to gush out, letting me know that the line was indeed clogged.

Water couldn't flow through the pipe and instead overflowed into the emergency pan below

Our emergency pan is fitted with an electronic cut off.  I turned the unit back on and lifted the float with my finger to simulate what would happen when the pan filled.   When I did this, it shut down the unit, proving that this safeguard was working.  

It works!

I had walked into the attic at the right time as the emergency pan was draining to the outside and hadn't built up to the level necessary to shut it down.  This let me know that the emergency pan drain was not clogged, but the primary drain was.  I've got to get this fixed.  

Emergency pan draining

So I had Tricia call the Air Conditioning man to schedule an appointment, but I wanted to see if I could fix it myself.  With the PVC pipe cut in two, I poured a little bleach down each side.  I then got my air compressor and fitted it with the jet nozzle.  I pressured up the compressor, cut a hole in a rag, stuck the nozzle in the rag, and jammed it into the pipe which made a tight seal.  I then blew the compressed air through the line on one side, blowing air and the bleach through the line.  I then repeated the same process, but on the other side of the cut line.

Cutting the line to unclog the drain.

I apologize in advance for the dark picture below, but I wanted to show my total expenditure.  The PVC collar joined the two cut pieces of pipe and cost me $0.26 cents before tax.  It fit very snug, so I didn't even use glue and that will enable me to check and clean out the line from time to time without cutting the line.

Our work here is done

Immediately, water stopped dripping into the emergency pan.  I felt the PVC pipe and it was ice cold, letting me know that water was once again flowing through the pipe.  Success!  I had Tricia call the A/C man and cancel the appointment.  Fortunately, we'll save a little money that would have gone to a service call. Fortunately, we caught the problem and fixed it before water came through the ceiling causing expensive damage.  Thank you, Lord!

I guess the moral of the story is that when you pray for water to fall from above, it is best to be specific - Pray for rain to fall outside!