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How to replace a flexible condensation drain pipe coming out of a brick wall?

There’s a flexible condensation pipe coming out of the brick exterior of my house, from the air conditioner in the lounge, and the pipe has degraded and needs replacing.

I’m wondering if I can remove and replace this piece of old piece myself somehow - or is it a tradesperson repair job and they’d need to remove the whole pipe and attach a new one to the air-conditioner and feed it back out of the house again?

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Comments

MitchellMc

You may be able to deal with this yourself, depending on why the pipe has failed, @Berry.

If the damage is only on the outside section, which is quite common due to UV exposure, you could cut the degraded section back to sound material and then join on a new length of hose. This can be done using a suitable barbed joiner and hose clamps, or by slipping a slightly larger diameter hose over the existing one and securing it firmly. That approach is often enough to stop leaks and tidy things up if the hose inside the wall is still in good condition.

The main thing to be cautious of is whether the hose has degraded beyond what you can see. If the material has broken down from age rather than just sun exposure, there is a risk that the section inside the wall cavity could also fail over time. If that happens, condensate water can leak into the wall cavity and eventually show up as dampness or staining on the internal wall, which becomes a much bigger problem.

Replacing the entire hose from the indoor unit is more involved. An air conditioning technician would usually need to remove or partially remove the indoor unit to disconnect the drain line and feed a new hose back through the wall. That is definitely a trade job.

For peace of mind, it would be worth having an air conditioning specialist inspect and replace the drain line entirely.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

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