#Trap

We recently received a Speakpipe question for the podcast about a common nuisance call on straight-cool A/C units and heat pumps. The systems, often retrofit units, were backing water up into the secondary drain pan and overflowing it. This issue isn’t happening on furnaces, which are positively pressurized, which means we have to take a […]

This picture is from a recent call I ran that clearly had an interesting past. It had a condensate pump to pump the water just a few feet up to a drain that went to a common drain. The “cleanout” after the trap is supposed to be a vent, not a cleanout, which means it […]

One of my techs (Jim Walch) brought another common “double trap”-style issue to my attention: techs and installers running a drain too far into a condensate pump. When you run the system drain too deep into the pump reservoir, the water level can rise high enough to cover the drain end. That can create the […]

Double traps are no good. That's the end of this tech tip. Okay, here's some detail: Anytime your drain goes up and down more than once, you have a double trap UNLESS you place an air vent between the two traps that vents ABOVE the drain inlet. The double trap causes drainage issues because air […]

 In this short Q&A podcast episode, Bryan answers a question about drain traps and static pressure. This question was sent by Stephen with The Comfort Squad when he noticed an uptick in nuisance calls on retrofit systems that kept having their secondary drain pans filled. In negatively pressurized systems (i.e., straight-cool or heat pump […]