Furnace humidifier

[Fruitfilledevil]

Hello everyone
I have an Aprilair 500 installed on my furnace. The excess water drains into the AC condensate pump and pumps it outside via a 3/8 or 1/2 clear tube. The problem I'm having is in winter, it freezes. The tube is cut flush with the hose so no excess sticks out.
I do not have a basement floor drain, and my laundry tub is on a different level of the house. I don't know what to do. I have a sump pit that is sealed for radon purposes. Can I drill a hole in the lid and run the line underwater and caulk where it enters? Any suggestions/help would be appreciated.

 

[Reach4]

One possibility is to feed that out of the sill plate with a bigger pipe angled downward. You want the water to not stand in the pipe. So I am picturing your tube entering the slanted pipe in the heated space. I am hoping that the warmed water coming out will melt a little existing ice before the wet pipe builds up more ice.

Regarding your sealed sump pit, I can see that working. I am also thinking you would want to have a trap that is deep enough to not suck dry. A regular convertible trap can be set for a 2 inch or 4 inch water seal. I don't know what W.C (water column) vacuum actually gets developed in your system. I would consider adding that trap to the PVC below the radon fan, but a new dedicated hole might be better.

I just realized what you meant by "run the line underwater". So you are saying that if after the pump turns off, there will still be some standing water. So you would maybe use some 1/2 inch, or smaller, PVC, with some cuts in the bottom area of the piipe to prevent a seal against the pit bottom. The residual water would make a water seal that would prevent air from being sucked in, at least usually. And a little air getting sucked in occasionally would not be a big deal. Sounds like an interesting concept.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Littletmv]

I service furnaces in a development that has this exact issue. Heat taping the entire drain tube was the fix for this (wrapped perfectly). The water is warm as it pumps out, so it doesn't have enough time to freeze. We are located in NJ, and it solved the problem on our coldest winter days. If you are in a colder climate area, then i'm not sure if this will be your solution.

 

[John Gayewski]

You can pump into your sump pit the radon has a fan which should be sucking air from that pit not blowing it out.