Parents of college age kids, this article is for you. I assume most have gone back to school. So what do college students and air conditioning have to do with each other. Let me explain. I have written a few articles in the past about the AC condensate drain line. We are seeing an increase in these service calls not to mention the number of hits my blog is receiving on this topic. Almost all houses in the Spring and surrounding area use their air conditioner, right? How do you stop your daughter or son’s sink from backing up if the AC drain line is connected to it? 1. you unstop it or 2. TURN OFF YOUR AC! I am sur you are thinking are you serious or is this lady crazy!. Well yes I am. : ) haha a little of both. If your AC is off the line will not back up. I know that is not the answer for ever, but it can buy you some time.

We moved my daughter in to college a few weeks ago. The good Lord was looking out for us. We moved our two youngest kids to the same college 4 days apart from each other. The night after we moved her in my son was moving his boxes downstairs in preparation to load my car. He heard water dripping. Then he screamed DAD!! water is running running all over the floor in his sisters bathroom! Sure enough that line that I had written about time and time again was happening to the plumber himself! I did not make it in time to get a picture of the water running all over the counter and onto the floor.

In my daughters defense, she had told my husband for about a month that her lavatory sink was draining slowly…..and we failed to address it. It could have been so much worse. Unfortutnaly for some of our customers it has been worse. Water damage for a running air conditioner with no one home can be as bad as a bathtub overflowing onto the floor if left unattended.

Parents – check on those sinks that are not used very often. Preventative measures can go a long way in these situations. You can buy tablets to put in the ac drain pain or put a cup of bleach down it. You can put bleach down your Childs drain at least once a month and sometimes twice a month in the summer.

If you have an empty restroom in your home another thing to be mindful of is to make sure the p-traps are full of water.

• Flush the toilets ever so often
• run the lavatory faucets
• run the bathtub
• run the shower

This will make sure that p-trap stays full. This will eliminate sewer gas smell and pesky sewer flies from escaping into your home.

Empty nesters, I am in your shoes. Hang in there, I’ve been told this chapter is an even better one. I have a very special friend who has changed the name from empty nesting to re-feathering. Hope this post was helpful. If so I would love to see your comments or suggestions. We are all in this together.