Pancrete and its Water-Repellant Nature: Protecting Condensate Pans through Intimidation

The Problem: After just a few years of service, galvanized condensate pans can start to corrode. This creates low spots in the pan causing water to pool, which accelerates the corrosion process, eventually causing the pan to leak. In the meantime, the standing water promotes biological growth, blocking the flow of water through the drain, resulting in pan overflows. Both scenarios, left unchecked, result in extensive water damage and repair.

Several ideas have been proposed to correct this problem. One idea is to use sloped condensate pans. Theoretically, this would cause the water to always flow into the drain. However, sloped pans are costly to manufacture and difficult to install. If improperly situated, they will cause pooling and corrosion near the drain. Another idea is to cover existing pans with an angled coating, causing it to act like a sloped pan, but these products are expensive, requiring specially trained contractors and extensive downtime.

The Solution: To solve this problem, Controlled Release Technologies created Pancrete condensate pan resurfacer. After being applied, Pancrete provides the condensate pan with a perfectly flat, water-repellant surface that will not corrode. Additionally, Pancrete contains an anti-microbial preservative, which prohibits it from becoming a food source for microorganisms. But there is much more to to Pancrete than this.

The Science: Pancrete is a hydrocarbon, as are most plastics and oils. A hydrocarbon is a molecule composed of both hydrogen and carbon atoms. Hydrocarbons are said to be “nonpolar,” because they have neither positive nor negative charges. In contrast to that,water is said to be “polar” because it is composed of two hydrogen atoms with partially
positive charges, and an oxygen atom with a partially negative charge.

Non-polar and polar molecules prefer to remain separate from one another. Therefore, as the saying goes, oil and water don’t mix. In fact, they won’t mix. This preference for separation is so strong that hydrocarbons, like Pancrete, are hydrophobic, meaning that they fear water. Likewise, water is intimidated by a Pancrete-resurfaced condensate pan. The water molecules literally do not want to touch the pan. Eventually, this causes the water to form beads, as it attempts to minimize contact with the Pancrete. These beads quickly produce a sheeting action, causing them to easily drain from the pan.

In Conclusion: There are many advantages to having a hydrophobic surface such as Pancrete in a condensate pan. Such a pan provides the most complete disbursement of water, and compared to alternative methods, is less expensive and easier to apply. So don’t let your condensate water push you around, fight back with Pancrete pan resurfacer.

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Dr. Joe Serpico, PhD has served as lead chemist and lab director for Controlled Release Technologies since 2004