This summer has been hot and we’ve had the air conditioning running a lot. That’s a pretty normal thing in Florida, but I’ve also switched to working from home for four out of five work days, so I need it cool so my brain doesn’t bake.

With the extra cooling, came an unfortunate incident where the condensation pan of my HVAC unit filled and overflowed. The result was water spillage that took a few days to dry out. The root cause was the drain line to the outside world got clogged with calcification. Subsequently, the leak detector in the pan (the one that comes with the A/C unit) didn’t work and didn’t shut off the unit. So, double-fail.

I cleared the line with my Shop-Vac and replaced the PVC “S”-shaped trap on the outside of the house, which was easily re-built with new components.

But, along with buying an IoT water leak detector and installing it in the drip pan, I also decided to get a drain gun. These use compressed CO2 cartridges (think: paintball guns) to deliver a blast of air/CO2 down the drain line to blow out any half-stuck gunk.

When I got the gun, it was just in a simple bubble-mailer and needed a new home, so I documented the project of designing a new box. Check out the details here.