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EG4 minisplit heat pump grounding question

Removed the indoor unit and plug is in secure. Condensation drainage line secured properly (quadruple checked). No line kinks. Moved bracket one inch left to create more space to ensure no kinking. Still dripping.

I’ll buy a mini split condensate pump.

The lines do run at a downward angle out of the house, but maybe I should have drilled and chiseled a more severe downward angle.

*it has been 110 degrees with good humidity the last two weeks here in Texas.
 
Improved the decline by 15 degrees.
Will see; but there’s something I’m missing (quadruple checked everything I could think of yesterday), or I’m just going to need a condensate pump. The way it looks now, gravity should just take its course (and I’ve helped it along with vacuum negative pressure out side drain hose, but still nothing except drips inside)

71354810943__F3800C68-1C3D-4E37-8035-AC9D881F4A9A.jpeg
 
Does it also drain out the drain line?
If so, the drain is probably fine.
In a garage, it is very hard to dehumidify.
Another thing to check is the angle of the louvers.
If not tilted downward. They can catch moisture and drip, in a high humidity situation.
Is it dripping from the louvers?
 
Where does the drain go? You sure you don't have it air-locked?? Sticking it in water is the number one no no..I should have asked this sooner..
 
Thank you all for the help. Will keep y’all updated. It does not also drain out the line.
It does drip over the louvres
It is/was extremely humid in the garage.
Now that the garage has stabilized in temp; it’s hardly dripping anymore.

Will monitor

ClearVue mini condensate pump arrives tomorrow; fingers crossed, I won’t need it.

Everything was installed per directions and now quintuple double dog dare checked (wish they had template provided). Drain tube never dipped in water.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, I did so something different; but I can’t see how that would affect anything.

Out of the box, I wrapped around the high and low line set insulation with electrical tape for extra protection. I did the same for the condensation drain line. Then when brought together, I wrapped again around all three with electrical tape so they could pass through the wall easier and minimize risk of line damage or kinking.

Last 24 hour condensate collection has been much better; dare I say minimal.

71362436743__37909FE7-874A-43CA-AEA5-89FF3F70CE22.jpeg71362439243__3AFA69E3-E33F-4661-9DDD-2C59D4F59BF6.jpeg
 
Plum Crazy Rob said:
Keep in mind these have some parasitic AC draw when switched OFF. We have measured 30W on a 12K, and 120W (!) for a 24K unit.
Click to expand...
The more we learn on these units, the more I regret buying one. That is alot of 'parasaitic draw'.
 
You can't measure the standby draw of a mini split with a regular clamp meter. Their power factor is so poor in standby that the current will look like 10x the real wattage.
 
hwy17 said:
You can't measure the standby draw of a mini split with a regular clamp meter. Their power factor is so poor in standby that the current will look like 10x the real wattage.
Click to expand...
Uh - oh. Anybody have an EG4 mini split and a fancy shmancy true power clamp meter :(:eek: ??

Thanks for noticing and guessing, correctly, that it was incorrectly measured!
 
Yeah I only know it cause I was aghast to find my mrcool drawing an amp at 240 on standby. Dug into google and learned that it is supposedly a power factor anomaly, but I never verified in my case with more advanced testing. My kill a watt can measure power factor but I have nothing for a 240v hardwired appliance.
 
Another question is, why can't we depend on devices to be 'off' or disconnected when turned off? What is the engineering philosophy behind this? I can remember an elderly relative who had a powerbar on everything some years ago. When I questioned this I was told 'I'm not paying for something to be off when it isn't' I thought that was pretty funny at the time.
 
Now at a complete loss.
I have now vacuumed the drainage line ten plus times….and then installed a clear vue mini condensation pump.

Still minimal dripping (especially when rapid changes in humidity level—such as opening the garage door first thing in the morning) and I’ve never seen any water collected in the drain lines.

Video and photos below.


IMG_1985.jpegIMG_1989.jpegIMG_1990.jpeg
 
I admittedly haven't read this entire thread, but ANY exposed line can and will drip in humid air. Either you have a leak, or (more likely given what you describe about it happening when you open the garage door), something in the refrigerated path is exposed to air. It only takes a little bit of surface area to create a lot of condensation. I once owned an office building that had a persistent stain on a ceiling tile until we discovered an AC refrigerant line that had a tiny little section where the foam wasn't covering the copper line. We fixed that, and no more staining.
 
Thank you, so something exposed on the line set, or something exposed inside the unit?

I did an A++ job of wrapping that insulation around the line set with a double wrap of electrical tape.

Or is it a line behind that thick styrofoam layer?

Thank you very much for the feedback.
 
I think I'd look into disassembling the plastic cover from the indoor unit hoping to get a look at drain pan. You might want to coordinate with SS warranty wise on this in case something gets broken. I feel at this point you've reasonably verified everything else. Check YouTube for disassembly info, albeit the Deye/EG4 is a unique unit.

Water should be POURING out the drain line. It is at my house in this weather.
 
The mini split I temporarily set up in the house I am building definitely drains a lot of water outside but it does also drip inside where I have not very well wrapped pipes. Sounds to me like your drain pan is either disconnected not installed correctly or broken.
 
Electrical tape very likely doesn't give you sufficient insulation. Think about a glass of ice water that you bring outside on a hot, humid day. Condensation firms on the outside of the glass within just a minute or two. That's what's happening, I strongly suspect. Electrical tape would get almost as cold as the exterior of tue pipe, so you still have the same problem. AC lines are almost always wrapped in foam insulation. People think it's to avoid losing heat from the refrigerant line, but it's also to prevent the very issue you are experiencing: condensation. You need to keep warm moist air away from ANY cold surface (including, I suspect, a refrigerant line wrapped in electrical tape), or condensation will form. Unless you have a leak in your drain line, I'd suspect condensation.
 
The drain lines came with thick insulation around them. All I did was double wrap electrical tape all over that thick insulation so the line set would pass through the home better.

That being said, I will unwrap them and reward with insulation tape
 
Great news; It was an easy fix.

Waaaay back in the drain hole on the left there was a black piece of plastic plugging the drain hole inside the unit.

I had to take a drill bit and drill it out.

Drains perfectly now with just gravity without the condensation pump.

This was either a manufacturing defect, or I suppose it was possible that when I removed the plug on the left side of the unit to switch it to the right and removed the condensation drain from the right and switched it to where the plug was, a little piece of that black plug tore off and got stuck…..it does not look like this was the case as the plug I removed in the left to switch to the right is intact.

Regardless, I’d recommend EG4 assemble and ship the units with the condensation drain attached and locked in place on the same side as the line set (the left side) so you don’t have to do the switcheroo first step (unnecessarily introduces too many potential problems)………and include a template.
 
Thank you all for your help as I now feel very confident performing maintenance and replacing parts on the unit if needed.
 
I disassembled from the front (as I didn’t want to lift it off the wall for the tenth time) to inspect the drain pan expecting to see the drain pan either misaligned from the factory, or an unexplainable crack. When I got to the drain pan, it was clear as day that that the drain hole in the far reaches of the unit was completely plugged with a piece of black plastic level with the top of the drain hole. As I was unable to gain purchase on it with pliers or fingers to pull it out backwards, I delightfully drilled a big hole in the middle of it and picked it clean off with pliers.

Drains like a charm (gushing out) with just gravity.
I removed the condensation pump as now I don’t need it. I’ll hold onto it just incase (maybe) or ship it back….but I’m so relieved it ended up being a relatively simple fix, and I did learn a lot lifting it off the wall mount and problem solving everything.

Thanks again for all your help.

I think it was a manufacturing defect as the plug I switched to the other side was completely intact.
 
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