Water in Ductwork

[Mark]

Just a little insite to my day of mobile home repair.

A customer called and thought he heard water running. He also said his ductwork was full of water. I asked if he had been running his air conditioner. He said not yet. So I ruled out a leaky a-coil drain pan as the reason for water in the ductwork.

I drove the 12 miles to the customer's house. Generally if there's water in the duct, it means that the waterline is leaking right next or just above the duct. Ughh -- usually that means it'll be difficult to get at (and that was an understatement).

I finally found the leak, and it was a leaky section of a double-tee. Of course it was hard to get at -- above the ductwork, between the floor joists, and an I-beam was right in the way. Plus, they had blown into the belly white insulation and that crap was everywhere.

I do not recommend blowing insulation into the belly for several reasons. First, too much insulation can cut off the heat source to the pipes and more easily cause freeze-ups. Second, repairs are a mess!

To make this job worse, the waterlines were 3/8" poly (1/2" is normal). Luckily I carry 3/8" poly adapters & cimpers in my service van. It took awhile, but I got the double tee replaced and all is working well. Then just before I got done, I put a couple small slits in the bottom of the ductwork to drain out the water.

I then advised the customer that give the water a couple hours to drain, then run the furnace to dry-out the ducts. Then in a few days when the belly dries, it will need patched to keep from freezing this winter, and keep out the critters.

Mark

[Yanita]

Hi Mark,

Great to see the sagas of mobile home repair back...used to enjoy the postings.

Sure wished you had been in my area this week.

The Hubby had to go out of town for the week...and of course one night I locked myself out of the house, thank God I forgot and left one window open just a little!

Had to push my way thru the thick boxwood hedges, hoist myself up and in thru the window... at 11:30PM. Son is upset with me as I broke a few items that were on his night stand, that was directly in front of the window. This happened on Tuesday night.

Wednesday I get home from work to find that the key will no longer work in the lock. It will only go in the cylinder about a third of the way. Really upset with this, it's hot, and I am tired, and LOCKED OUT AGAIN!

I know I can't go thru any of the windows as I turned the air conditioner on before I left for work. Everything is shut tight and locked! I do go to the other 2 doors hoping to gain entry, wrong. One night last week I removed the keys that I forgot what they went to...you got it, one of those keys that I have a clear vision of laying on my desk is the storm door key! Those doors are locked also!

So I go to the garage, get a razor knife and slice the screen to my new door so I can gain entry to the steel door lock! So today the doors and window company out and to check the locks, guess it is defective, the tumblers broke, BUT, they are going to replace the screen for free.

Get home from work today, walk in....I immediately knew something is a miss with the AC, it's hotter inside than out! Yup, guess it developed a slow leak over the winter and froze up today! So the Air man left a little while ago, said he will be back in a few hours or so to check the lines and give it some freon!

See Mark, if you were much closer you could of got me in the house a couple of different times as well as fixed my a/c, rescreened my door, and replaced the locks!

Thank God it's Friday and Hubby returned home a few hours ago.

Hopefully next week will be a little easier!

Have a good night!

~Yanita~

[Maureen]

I agree with Yanita! We've missed your repairman reports Mark! They've always been informative and sometimes entertaining!

Gotta agree with blown insulation in the belly, for that reason alone! Repairs in the belly are hard enough. Mix in anything but bat insulation, and you've doubled or tripled the chore! It's so much easier to just replace the bat insulation and repair the slits in the belly.

Yanita, sounds like you had a pretty eventful week to say the least! Gotta love those 'when it rains it pours' weeks.

We always keep one spare hidden far away from the home itself, easy for us to find in case we get locked out. No one else could find it without a metal detector!

I had to laugh at the former owners. It took me a few months, but I finally found a hide a key inside one of the sheds, tucked away, sort of. These sheds always have been locked. So, if they lost their keys I wonder how they thought they were going to get into a locked shed?

My hide a key spot looks very similar to my drip system LOL! I'd dare anyone to try to find it in over 1000 feet of drip system! Hey, it works for me... and no, it's a false feed off the system and never comes in contact with water. The key is in a waterproof bag. I check it every year, it's never rusted yet!

Oh, one thing we've never done is tell the kids where it is! Only Warren and I know where it is. The kids have to call or ring the door bell to get in. Or sit outside until we get home!

Maureen

Maureen