The condensate pipe from my home’s gas furnace leads to a floor drain right next the furnace. This morning something’s making gurgling noises down there, and I’m pretty sure either it’s the floor drain or the condensate pipe. As long as the condensate keeps going down the drain then that’s the most important thing, but the sound is kind of irritating, especially in the morning when the furnace runs nonstop for an hour to get the house up to temp. Any suggestions on how to mitigate the sound?
What kind of drain? Connected to a sewer? A septic system? A hole in the ground (drywell)?
Could be ice in it and the sound comes from the condensate melting and draining through the ice.
This article addresses the most common causes likely to be at play, and how each might be addressed.
I’ve dealt with buildup in both the drip pan and the condensate drain line itself, DIY, in the past. Not difficult at all. The other possibles? I might hire that out:
Also, after my one-and-only ‘repair’ of a clogged line, I bought this guy:
Haven’t needed it yet, but I think it’ll save a bit of time. I also bought some ‘tablets’ that, in theory, help prevent recurrence:
So far … so good.
It’s a basement floor drain, connected to the city’s sanitary sewer system. The drainage pipe from the furnace is PVC, maybe 1" diameter, and it travels maybe 8" across the floor before a 90-degree elbow drops the condensate in the floor drain.
The basement is about 60F, maybe a little warmer in the room where the furnace sits. It’s a high-efficiency furnace, so it brings in cold outside air for combustion. Is there some way cold air would have access to the condensate drainage system (to potentially cause ice)?
I don’t know, but probably not. It should be fairly warm around the furnace so if the drain hose is the source then probably something clogging it. I assume there’s some kind of trap under the floor which could possibly freeze but a clogged hose sounds more likely to me.
Possible the trap in the floor drain is drying out. Pour a gallon of water into the drain to see if it helps.
Just nosy: Did you ever figure it out?
I started reviewing videos about how to clear out clogs in the condensate drain, and they mentioned taking steps, when using vacuum or compressed air, to avoid damaging very sensitive pressure sensors. I think I can manage that, but since the gurgling has stopped for now, I’m going to wait until this spring or summer to start digging into this. That’s when accidentally disabling the furnace, if it happens, won’t be such an emergency.
Does the condensate drain (above floor level) have a P-trap and if so, is it vented?
Dunno; haven’t even looked inside it yet.
OK, how 'bout this one: is the drain pipe sealed into the floor drain or does it merely “hang in there”?
And do you know for a fact that the floor drain is tied into the city sewer? Basement drains can be tricky…sometimes in less than level neighborhoods they are lower than the waste main, and must drain “somewhere else” outside, often in the back yard. Quite often these lines are not trapped because there is no sewer involved.
Famous last words. Just don’t blow it off and forget about it. These things happen for all the bad reasons, never good! It may be intermittent now, but it’ll never fix itself.
Had a situation @ my house that had been giving occasional gurgling noises for a YEAR that I managed to ignore. (Hell, I put the DWV in myself 37 years ago and I KNEW it was right!) But the city main two doors down had slowly been plugging off all this past year, and last week I acquired a basement full of shit.
I drilled an extra hole in my condensate pump and installed a long, vertical pipe in it. The top is open, and I drop a “Clean Flow Tab” in it about once a month. The tab drops down into the water that is in the pump. Haven’t had any blockage problems.
