Question about house central A/C drain

[madmaxnj]

I'll skip the long drawn out back story. The condensate drain line from my house central air drains into my rain gutter. PVC runs from the unit and pokes outside into the gutter. Had some problems with it backing up so I opened up the gutter to take a look (gutter guards are a PITA to open up for inspection). The PVC runs flush into the outside wall of the gutter. The only flow is from the curve of the gutter wall against the flat cut of the PVC drain. Very small opening. Is that right? There was some gutter sludge (decomposing small leaves and such) around it, so the gravity fed condensate line was backing up. I cleaned out the sludge from that area and with the garden hose tried my best to flush the gutter in both directions (some good junk flushed out onto the driveway). The gutter guards are good, but not impervious. Back to the PVC, should I cut it a little shorter? Maybe drill a small hole on top so that if there is some small sludge clogging that sliver of an opening it will still drain? Is this done to keep bugs or critters from going back up the line?

Thanks
Max

 

[samss]

You should be able to cut it back enough to have a gap between the end of the pvc and the outside wall of the gutter. At least an inch. There should be a p-trap at the airhandler to prevent bugs from getting inside.

 

[madmaxnj]

I'll see if I can get up there this weekend to trim it back. There is a p-trap in the attic by the air handler.