Drain pipe from furnace issue

[mangelo2 (mike angelo)]

@rbleich

I think the main purpose is what you may have alluded to, that sewer gases could possibly back up into the drain line and into the attic space.

Could you tee off the vent pipe with a stand pipe and a trap for the condensate drain to discharge into? I’ve never seen that, but Martin @mwilles is sort of the resident plumber, maybe he could answer that. But there is still the possibility of water freezing in the trap.

I can see in your video that the furnace sits below the floor height in your attic. Unless the furnace is raised, as of now your only option is a condensate pump to an “approved“ location. I think what may be happening is condensate is freezing in the “bellies” of the loosely supported flexible drain line, preventing any further water from getting through. That is something else that would have to be corrected.

What I can’t see in your video is a drain pan under your furnace. This could be a problem if a leak develops which could damage the ceiling below. The drain pan would be connected to a drain line in a similar fashion that Martin described. This could also be a problem in the future.

im not sure about a stand pipe, i honestly dont know what one is lol. but ive heard other people mention the trap possibly freezing. the furnace guy said i prob shouldnt need one but i asked to have one put on anyways so he said ok. but now its a pickle between it freezing and a risk of not having one on.

there is a giant pan under the furnace luckily, it did catch some of the water from the pump. but the giant pan doesnt drain anywhere. when i saw them bring it in its just a giant sheet of metal with curved up edges i think from what i remember.

the furnace does sit on the floor, the boards around the furance at to keep the blown in fiberglass insulation away from it. that insulation stuff is like 2 feet deep or so. one of the previous owners had it put in. (wish it was never there)

when we thawed the line out and turned the pump on to drain out of the pvc setup, it started overflowing through the top. so there must be a freeze in there somewhere to im guessing which is why were trying to bypass that. i dont think i mentioned that before

[ryoung7 (ROBERT YOUNG, CMI)]

Poor furnace condensate dispersal application.
Refer to HVAC contractor and move on.

[mangelo2 (mike angelo)]

@mwilles

The plastic tubing that they have installed at the ceiling in your attic does not need to be there. The drain it ties into, which is PVC, can be ran towards your furnace and the furnace condensate can drain into that pipe. That is the pipe that needs to grade at 1/8 inch per foot towards a downward direction.

It may be necessary to raise the furnace to allow proper drainage into the condensate drain without the use of a pump.

oh ok i understand now. eh, raising the furnace is prob a no go. there is almost no where to stand and then shifting pipes attached to that etc. when we cleared the tube and ran the water out of the pump into the pvc, the pvc pipe overflowed from the top. so i think even the pvc pipe has frozen somewhere which is why we want to eliminate it. its a very long stretch from attic to outside so it could be freezing anywhere. your idea eliminating the hose and just sloping pvc to other pvc would be one i wish we could do, it makes sense, but i dunno where the pvc blockage is thats why were trying to just eliminate that

[mangelo2 (mike angelo)]

@ndegaris

The humming noise is the pump trying to do it’s job, but since the drain line is frozen the water has nowhere to go so it keeps running.

Here is a possible solution to consider with insulating your attic space with spray foam. Hard to tell but the attic does not appear to be very large. This maybe the best money spent as it would also reduce utility expenses.

I would also be looking for another HVAC company for future service and repairs.

thank you for the video. the attic is pretty big. the video just shows one corner. the house is nearly 2k sq ft. (victorian). im not sure if spray foam would be a good idea, the metal roof i have on it now is about 30 years old estimate. its in decent condition i aluminum fiber protect it, but im weary of any leaks or holes since its so old. the way it is now i can check the roof on a heavy rain day and make sure i see no drips. with the spray foam if i have a leak i dunno where the water would travel to or what it would do in that future type scenario. ill prob eventually have to look into some sort of insulation on the ceiling though. there is just the fiberglass on the floor. oh and yes the humming noise stopped when we cleared the water out like you said.

[mangelo2 (mike angelo)]

@ryoung7

Poor furnace condensate dispersal application.
Refer to HVAC contractor and move on.

hi, yes thats what im doing. the original company who installed it actually just never called me back and left me hanging. so right now i have a new guy who is retired who does this just to stay busy. ive had him do other work for me and hes always did a good job on things. so im hoping his plan works out. hes busy though so i have a few days until we redo things. but he came out for a assesment plan basically

[ryoung7 (ROBERT YOUNG, CMI)]

Post Furnace manufacturer’s, model, and serial number please.

[mangelo2 (mike angelo)]

i just wanted to post my final update of what we ended up doing instead of leaving a cliffhanger.

we got rid of that clear tube since of course itll freeze. theres only a few inches of clear tube that feeds into a new pvc pipe with a trap. this goes straight into the vent pipe (the big stink pipe that goes through the roof). the pvc is lower to the ground and sloped. even though he installed a trap, i prob didnt need it as it will dry up in summer and become useless. i didnt think of that before. i have a pretty huge attic gable window, and 4 vents in the roof. if sewer gas is a problem im assuming it will float out of the space. the pvc pipe had heat cable under it, and then wrapped in foam insulation, the circle kind that looks like a noodle.

i had problems with the heat cable. i decided to leave it unplugged. for one i dont think i need it. maybe a temp emergency ill use it for a little bit if needed. but i think its wrapped enough that nothing will freeze. the problem with todays heat cables are instead of running at a constant temp of about 50 degrees, the ones they sell at home depot have a thermostat that needs to be attached to the pipe. and there needs to be constant water flow to measure the on and off of the heat cable. if you have it off the pipe the manufacture when i called said the thermostat will turn on from ambient air. so far mine has not. the problem lays within that, when it turns on from ambient air it will turn on at 88 degrees and run to long and eventually malfunction from being on to long and not shutting off. i dont think they are made to run long periods of time like the old heat tape use to. not this version anyways. so then comes the fear of the malfunction, best case scenario it stops working right away or pops the gfci. worse case scenario it keeps trying to work while malfunctioning and causes a fire. with any chance of a fire i decided to just unplug the heat wire and not use it at all. and left a note saying to not plug it in. i dont think were going to have anymore 0 degree days here so ill have to wait till next summer and see how everything pans out. i know tapping into the vent pipe was prob not up to code, but its the only place the guy could go to drain it.
he still also has to come back and rewire the condensate pump to the red wire to shut my thermostat off if the pump goes bad again in the future. for whatever reason last year the new furnace installers thought the shutoff switch just wasnt important to wire on a system doomed to fail.