Ice maker drain line

Rime

Rime

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I recently bought my sister an ice machine ( she has 4 kids in sports in hot humid Mississippi ). It has a drain line, which apparently needs a very expensive pump if it can't just drain directly. Since the machine will sit right next to the laundry tub, she thinks she can just build a box for it to stand on and drill through the side of the tub and use the laundry sink's drain. Is there any way she could tap into the sink's drain directly and not trash the laundry tub ?

The bin drain is 3/4 inch.

Thanks !
 
You could use a condensate pump designed for a/c or condensing boilers/furnaces. They're fairly inexpensive. You need an air gap, and shouldn't run it directly to the drain without one. A condensate pump has a small reservoir, and a float that trips to turn it on. You could run the outlet to the stand pipe of the washing machine, or make a bracket to drain it into the sink with the end above the flood plane.
 
I wouldn't use a condensate pump, they are not made for constant draining (which the ice box will do). The best bet would be to tie into the sink drain with a T above the trap and run a stand pipe up like a laundry drain making sure to leave an air gap.
 
Why does an icemaker require a drain and why would it be continuously draining?
How much water volume is it draining in a given time?
 
They have a storage box that holds the ice, it will constantly melt and needs to drain somewhere.

On a hot day it would be a fairly steady flow depending on the size of the machine.
 
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At least some of them have the box refrigerated, and don't drain much at all except when you might clean it out. On a cold day, my condensing boiler's condensate pump runs a lot, you can literally hear the water flowing down the vent pipe and into the pump's reservoir. Unless you can raise the icemaker up quite high, gravity isn't going to work. The air gap needs to be above the rim of the sink so you don't have the possibility of draining potentially polluted water into the icemaker. Seems like you need a pump.
 
The better ones are unrefrigerated so the ice is constantly being renewed so it does not get stale or clump up. I always use a condensate pump rather than the $200.00+ one from the manufacturer. But get the largest one that fits into the IM's cavity. It does NOT need an air gap when it connects to the drain line, because the pump itself provides that protection.
 
hj said:
The better ones are unrefrigerated so the ice is constantly being renewed so it does not get stale or clump up. I always use a condensate pump rather than the $200.00+ one from the manufacturer. But get the largest one that fits into the IM's cavity. It does NOT need an air gap when it connects to the drain line, because the pump itself provides that protection.
Click to expand...

HJ, are there any brands that you would recommend ? There are lots of Little Giant models, which have fairly good reviews.

Thanks, Rime
 
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