Sumpthing wrong...

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bkap

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Sorry about that... I've got an issue that hopefully someone can answer. A few years ago, we purchased a new humidifier for our forced air heating system that uses a constant flow of water across a filter. Excess water drains to a little pump which pumps the water through a small copper pipe to a sump pump located about 20 feet away. Everything works fine except that during last winter, an iceberg formed in my backyard which extended down the back of my property toward a neighboring house. Over this past summer, we installed new pvc piping outside to drain all of the gutters/leaders away from the house and out to the street. To avoid the iceberg this year, our plumber hooked up the sump pump to the pvc piping outside. Well, you guessed it. We ended up with an iceberg on the street and I had to go out there with a large shovel to cut up the 7 inch deep ice flow - not a pretty sight. With this type of humidifier, where can I discharge all of this water without causing a problem? There is a bathroom in the basement, although it is far from the humidifier and it would probably be difficult to snake a pipe over without destroying the finished walls. Any ideas????
 

Jadnashua

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First off, are you sure that your humidistat is working properly?

The goal of this type is to have some liquid reach the bottom of the filter so thatyou don't deposit the minerals onto the filter medium. You don't need a huge volume of water going through it. You might want to temper the flow some. That will help, but not solve the problem. The water should only flow while the fan is on, too, otherwise very little will evaporate, and all of it will go out the drain. Are you sure it turns on and off with the fan? Different brands use different means of switching the water solonoid on and off.

Getting the water to a drain depends somwhat on how far the pump will push it. Usually, they have some minimum head. If you can slope the pipe from the high point, then it should work. my guess is that your joists must run the wrong way if you have to move it that far.

I ran my drain to the washing machine's stand pipe - do you have one of those nearby? Where does your sewer outlet run. Problem is, you'd need a trap, and maybe (probably) a vent to do it right. Is there a bathroom or something above this?

You might be able to put in a drywell, but thatis a little hard this time of year (considering you are worried about ice!). Maybe next year?

I'm not a pro - good luck.
 

bkap

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Thx

Thanks. I'm pretty sure the humidistat is working properly. Water flows only when fan is on. I've tried to limit the amount of water that passes over the filter, but, when I do that, I cannot satisfy the humidistat (for example, I only get up to 15-20% humidity in the house and I set it for 30-40% so it constantly runs). I'm going to talk with another plumber/hvac person and see if they can pump the water over to the bathroom drain. The other option they told me is to replace the humidifier with one that doesn't drain water (but, that seems like a big waste since I just installed this one recently). Thanks for your assistance.
 

Jadnashua

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Personally, I prefer the bypass systems rather than those that use a tank and a rotating wheel filter medium. The bypass systems don't get as smelly or the filters messed up as quickly. You can't just dump the drain into the existing bathroom line without some changes. I'm not sure what is required, but assuming you can run it that far, there must be a way to do it to code; I just dont' know what it is!
 

PEW

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You did not say how quickly the ice is building up. Your humidifier should have an orifice to limit the flow of the water. If you are going through a high volume of water, could someone have removed the orifice?

I have always used a laundry tub to pump to.

Paul
 
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