michael-thomas
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Help me out here.
I’m a Home Inspector looking at an arrangement uncommon in my area: updraft condensing furnace with AC coil below it:
http://inspectionnews.com/ubb/uploads/Drain1.jpg
with a condensate drain line connection in the crawl space made directly above the trap of a floor drain:
http://inspectionnews.com/ubb/uploads/Drain3.jpg
the idea, as best I’ve been able to determine, was to make the condensate drain line do double duty as a trap prime.
Lots of things bother me about this, and I need to know if my concerns are reasonable, and if so should be done to correct any existing problems.
1) With no air gap on the condensate line and the AC coil upstream of the furnace it appears to me be a big soda straw with one end stuck down the DWV system and the furnace sucking on the other - that if anything obstructs the floor drain at a minimum you could pull sewer gas back past the trap and into the furnace, and that if the DWV system backed up to the point were water rose above the attachment for the condensate drain you could suck contaminated water up as well.
2) Should that primary condensate drain be right at floor level? Assuming that it needs to be trapped, where would you locate the trap?
3) Does this arrangement violate the probation against direct connect of the condensate line to the DWV system?
4) In terms of plumbing issues, am I missing anything?
- Thanks
I’m a Home Inspector looking at an arrangement uncommon in my area: updraft condensing furnace with AC coil below it:
http://inspectionnews.com/ubb/uploads/Drain1.jpg
with a condensate drain line connection in the crawl space made directly above the trap of a floor drain:
http://inspectionnews.com/ubb/uploads/Drain3.jpg
the idea, as best I’ve been able to determine, was to make the condensate drain line do double duty as a trap prime.
Lots of things bother me about this, and I need to know if my concerns are reasonable, and if so should be done to correct any existing problems.
1) With no air gap on the condensate line and the AC coil upstream of the furnace it appears to me be a big soda straw with one end stuck down the DWV system and the furnace sucking on the other - that if anything obstructs the floor drain at a minimum you could pull sewer gas back past the trap and into the furnace, and that if the DWV system backed up to the point were water rose above the attachment for the condensate drain you could suck contaminated water up as well.
2) Should that primary condensate drain be right at floor level? Assuming that it needs to be trapped, where would you locate the trap?
3) Does this arrangement violate the probation against direct connect of the condensate line to the DWV system?
4) In terms of plumbing issues, am I missing anything?
- Thanks
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