OK that title is a little dramatic but it could have been bad. Here is what happened. I had to go in to work this morning to upgrade a customer’s servers remotely and managed to leave my phone at work. After I took my kid to swim lessons I went back in to work to get my phone. I decided to show my kid the server room, which turned out to be a good idea, because when I opened the door I saw, to my surprise, a puddle of water on the floor. I looked up and saw a ceiling title that was completely saturated with water. I ran around the office grabbing as many trash cans as possible because I didn’t l know what would happen once I knocked the ceiling tile out of the ceiling. Luckily the water that was dripping down from the ceiling was about 6 inches from a server rack and not on top of it.
After knocking down the tile, which basically crumbled when I touched it, I was able confirmed the source of the water. Over the servers is the air conditioner. Below the the air conditioner is a drip pan that is about 5 ft long 2.5 ft wide and about 2 inches thick. I grabbed a step stool and stuck my hand in this drip pan. It was completely filled with water.
I knew that I had to drain this water but I was unsure exactly how. So I ran over to the tool box and grabbed the drill and a the biggest bit I could find. I knew that if I waited much longer that drip pan was going to start to over flow in more areas then just the one corner that wasn’t over the servers. Once again I ran around the office this time I grabbed the 14 gallon tubs that we use as paper recycle bins. I get on the step ladder and start drilling the hole. As excepted, the water started to rush out.
Forty-five minutes later the drip pan is finally empty and one 14 gallon tub is full. I found that the water is coming from the air conditioner’s relief pipe. What I don’t know is why it is dripping as much water as it is. I guess I will find out Monday morning when the HVAC people.
Here are the pictures that I took with my iPhone. Sorry the the quality is kinda bad but I was in a hurry to get the water cleaned up.
Update (2010/04/27):
The fine HVAC folks at Newcomb came out and determined that the issues was a clogged drip pipe.
