THAT'S ONE WEIRD ICE PATTERN

This was a really cool call it wasn't anything crazy just a nice little challenge that I figured out.

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[benruf]

Your demonstration of critical thinking and deductive reasoning is applicable to so many professions. Thanks for being an example for a new generation of engineers and technicians.

[RambozoClown]

Running the fan in reverse to blow out dust on startup is pretty slick.

[maxsantana]

Chris is going to be in the National Geographic channel explaining ice formation in Antarctica.

The p-trap issue was the key.

[ThePowerofElectricity]

I think the issue you were observing was a dead drain chute... or drain slope ... heater.
Looking front on against the evap, on the right slope top you can see two white wires going to what seems to be a heating mat glued to the slopes the ice was building up on.
If that (what I presume to be a heater) is not working, ice melts off of the evap coil, then drips down onto the freezing metal plates. It freezes in place and makes a sheet.
The next defrost cycle, it repeats and another sheet is formed. That goes on until the ice sheet accumulation is thick enough to isolate itself from the freezing metal chute.
Depending on freezer temp, and defrost times it's more or less ice thickness, meaning the hot water will either deposit or melt away ice with each defrost cycle.
At the end you get a half-frozen drain chute.

So yeah, that's my take on this one; Drain-chute has a heater that's not working.

[robertcounts]

the thing with proving the problem is now your not worrying about a call back. A buddy of mine had a used hot tub that would shut down on high temp, I check senors all read the same ohm in a glass of water, then i pulled the pump to make sure there was not a clogged pump, the senor was mounted on the outside of the tube with the heater inside, pulled the heater tube looked inside and a small part of the heater was touching the metal tube where the senor was, pried the heater away from the tube put it all back together and no more shut down! Almost broke my arm patting myself on my back!

[mysticknight]

If the box is too cold, the meltwater will freeze before it gets to the bottom of the “V” shaped drain guide. The buildup will eventually make exactly the ice pattern you showed at the start of the video

[russ]

I'm not into HVAC but your clear instructions and the process you follow make me come back to your channel time and time again. Brilliant. Have a great 2025

[MsFireboy]

Thanks for posting. What we call a teachable moment Chris.

[atch_n_sons]

Holy smokes, I’ve been watching your videos since 2017. Happy New Year Chris

[kat]

Me???🤔 I am thinking “someone” was cleaning the unit an see the pan an pulled it out and “if” they seen the drain they would think hay that’s not right it can’t drain that way AN turned 180 in all honesty did a huge boo boo not understanding the technical reasons why it was done that way 👍 also your spot on !! Fixing the problem is one thing but figuring out (“what”) caused the problem to me is more satisfying than just run in an do something to get it up and running running…❤

[proc]

Not sure if you noticed or not, but there is a heater wire on each side of the “funnel” under the evap that directs the water to the drain hose. I’ve had the heaters go bad so the water drips on the sides of the funnel and then freezes and slowly builds up. This also makes sense, as it was froze all the way up and the drain inlet was clear because the drain heater was working, but not the funnel wall heater. Hopefully that makes sense.

[TwistedMe]

9:37 Looks like a good demonstration of a point from the "The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries".
39: There is a difference between spare parts and extra [parts].

[billlaporte]

The diagnosis part of this video was FANTASTIC. Clever! Thanks for the great Vid!

[stevenhorne]

Good thing the customer left it running so all the ice was still there. Nice catch! Mfg. need to see your video.

[achannelwithnopurpose]

I personally love service calls in the fire alarm field. The difficult ones are like nice puzzles. So much fun.

[RogelioGarcia-ky]

Thank you so much for the videos….They are a blessing!

[EdwardOrozco]

Really good explanation of that drain.

[mikematyas]

I have found the pan heaters on the v pan not working causing that also several times.

[amoni]

They are putting in these units at my locations. Thanks for this intel. Will know what to look out for when I do my PMs. 👍🏾

[thomasdaddy]

Prayers for you and your family and all the people of Southern California