Laundry Tub Faucet Drain line?

Hi All,

While using my laundry tub today, I noticed that when I turned on the water (hot or cold) I could hear water pouring down the floor drain hole. I removed the floor drain cover and noticed a white tube which had water draining whenever the laundry taps were turned on.

I followed the line back from the cement floor and it lead to the bottom of my laundry tub faucets. It's at the base of the spout. If I remove the spout I can see directly into the tubing line. This doesn't make any sense to me - if you turn on the hot water to fill up the laundry tub, hot water is pouring down the drain? Is this normal, something wrong? If I plug the drain line, the tap still works, can anyone offer help?

Gordon

Sounds like a trap primer for the floor drain, intended to keep the trap full of water and sewer gas/insects out of your basement. This is a good thing.

If "pouring" is intended to indicate a very high volume flow, it could have a problem.

Are you new to this house?

It's a trap primer.......designed to keep the trap from ever losing its seal.

It's also a cross-connection with a potable water source and a waste line if there is no approved Air Gap design to prevent the reversal of flow.


A thread here long ago discussed a toilet set up the same way with a tube leading from the bend down into the basement; every time the toilet would flush a little bit of water would make it to the trap, keeping the trap seal adequate through the year.

I bet two jelly donuts that was the diagnosis and they were good.

Trap primer

Sounds like a home-made trap primer. Who ever hooked this up didn't want to put in the proper primer valve. Hot water is never used for this purpose. If you know where these lines are connected you have to cap off the hot line and put in a primer valve on the cold side only, don't delete, this is a safety device. If you don't feel that you can do this, call a pro. Lots of luck.

...........................................................
"If all else fails, read the directions"

Trap Primer?

Well, thanks for the fast help and you are all pointing at the same problem.

First off, TedL, the house is just over a year old.

Let me explain the problem from a different angle...

If I take the water spout off the laundry tub faucet and turn the cold or hot water on very slowly so the water just appears at the spout opening. The water doesn't overflow the faucet as it runs down a plastic tube that drains into the basement floor drain. This plastic tube is connected directly below the spout. Of course, if I turn the water on harder, it will overflow the spout opening but it will continue to drain down the plastic tube as well.

The other day, I connected the frozen garden hose to the laundry tub faucet to de-thaw the ice within the hose. I'm thinking the pressure created might have blown the fitting off the end of the plastic tube (a trap primer maybe) and this fitting went down the drain. What type of fitting could or should go on the end of this tube?

If I plug the hole at the end of the tube, when I turn on the water no water comes out. If I connect a short hose to the spout and kink the hose, then the plug is blown out and the water flows again.

Any help is appreciated.

Gordon

Just for interests sake I did a quick search on this topic...
Turns out there are a few manufacturers that make larndry faucets with trap primer adapters built in to them (can be used or plugged)...
Seems like it would not be safe (probably no air-gap included).
It seems to be a design "feature" though...
What make and model is the faucet?

markts30 said:

What make and model is the faucet?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, the faucet has OS!B symbol engraved on it.

Gordon

primer

Unless the spout had a backflow preventer on the end of it, it would act as a vacuum breaker because air could flow in through the spout during a negative pressure situation.

Plugged the hole

So I wasn't sending hot water down the drain, or lots of water down the drain, I plugged the end of the tube with a cap with a small hole. The hole allows the water to drain but just a trace compared to actually running. The trace of water will add water to the drain on each application of the tap so smells etc shouldn't be problem and the water will not sit in the tube / spout when the taps are off.

I'll see what happens and go from there.

Thanks all.

Gordon

A picture of this device/set up would be helpful... got one?

I can get a picture...

Randyj said:

A picture of this device/set up would be helpful... got one?

Click to expand...

I can get a picture (several) but how do I post it? I don't have a website to link from?

Gordon