condensate collector box repair

[mjeff87]

Hey guys,
I have a Lennox gas furnace (condensing, single stage) that developed a crack in the condensate collector box. It stated leaking all over my attic floor when running Got the box replaced, and boy is Lennox proud of that little plastic box I've got the old one I want to try to repair and keep as a spare JIC the new one craps the bed at some point. It's cracked right at the top, where one of the mounting ears is. Any recommendations on some type of epoxy or other to fix it, after I get it cleaned up? See here:

 

[Jim greengo]

Drill a hole in each end of crack,run some epoxy in there.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

X2 on the epoxy. The unit should be sitting on top of an emergencuy pan, too.

Tommy

 

[mjeff87]

I didn't think about stop-drilling the cracks, good idea. Any specific brand/type of epoxy to use?

The collector box is at the bottom of the furnace housing that has the blower in it. The PVC pipe coming out of the top (which is cut now) runs over to the trap/drain shared by the A/C, where there is a catch pan. There is no pan directly underneath the box. I do have a homemade catch pan I made up under it now, just in case.

 

[bimmer1980]

Actually, you need to verify what type of plastic the box is made out of.... there are certain types of plastic that are extremely difficult to use adhesive on... polypropylene and Polyethylene. I have tried a variety of JB Weld, epoxy, adhesive caulks, etc, and they don't work on this type of plastic.

If it is ABS, then some ABS plumbing cement with MEK in it will work well. This actually solvent welds.

If the box is PVC, then some PVC plumbing cement should work....

Let us know how you make out with this....

 

[mjeff87]

Yeah, that's why I'm asking about what to use

All I can find on it is the recycle symbol with #7, which is "other". So it's not PVC. It's a pretty brittle, shiny, smooth finish material (almost like Bakelite??) Part # is Lennox 78L3201. There's plenty of places on the 'net that sell it but no one lists the material type in the item description.

 

[brewchief]

Those crack in that spot pretty regular, if the mounting ears get overtightened it will crack, they should never be tightened with a drill or impact driver.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[oledude1952]

Yeah, that's why I'm asking about what to use

All I can find on it is the recycle symbol with #7, which is "other". So it's not PVC. It's a pretty brittle, shiny, smooth finish material (almost like Bakelite??) Part # is Lennox 78L3201. There's plenty of places on the 'net that sell it but no one lists the material type in the item description.

I have had good luck with this plastic epoxy in the pic from Lowes. I even made a HEPA filter box for my canister vacuum using the epoxy, to glue scrap clear plastic and PVC pipe together.

Its now almost 2 years old and still going HEPA style.

Just stir it well for around two minutes before applying in above 50 deg. F. temp. Maybe try to abrade the mating plastic surfaces and clean them, to help the adhesion. Not mandatory to do though. JMO

 

[rlitman]

Yeah, that's why I'm asking about what to use

All I can find on it is the recycle symbol with #7, which is "other". So it's not PVC. It's a pretty brittle, shiny, smooth finish material (almost like Bakelite??) Part # is Lennox 78L3201. There's plenty of places on the 'net that sell it but no one lists the material type in the item description.

Ok, #7 is good. I'd try to glue it with ABS adhesive, but any plastic epoxy should be good on it too. What you don't have is #2 or #5, which are the types that epoxy won't work well on.

edit: Oh, just FYI, it isn't bakelite. Bakelite is a thermoset plastic. Thermoset plastics cannot be recycled, so they would never have a recycling symbol.

 

[mjeff87]

Those crack in that spot pretty regular, if the mounting ears get overtightened it will crack, they should never be tightened with a drill or impact driver.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

That's the funny thing....it's the original box from install back in 2009. Maybe it was overtightened a bit too much at install and it just took a few years of vibrating to stress induce the crack.

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll clean it all up this weekend and try some epoxy on it. If it works I'll just keep it as a spare.

 

[Jim greengo]

Yeah, that's why I'm asking about what to use

All I can find on it is the recycle symbol with #7, which is "other". So it's not PVC. It's a pretty brittle, shiny, smooth finish material (almost like Bakelite??) Part # is Lennox 78L3201. There's plenty of places on the 'net that sell it but no one lists the material type in the item description.

Probably abs

 

[brewchief]

Probably abs

Lennox did use ABS parts on the furnaces that used those traps, the flue collar piece was ABS and a special ABS transition cement was supposed to be used.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Firebrick43]

The best epoxy for plastics is g/flex from west. A fillet and some cloth. Even small piece of 2 oz will do better and make it remarkably stronger than simply trying to glue it back together