# Icemaker drain fiasco



## smellslike$tome

Everytime I come across a stand alone icemaker, some yahoo, unthinking, no common sense plumber has done something stupid. I find any number of idiotic methods of connecting the ice maker drain to the sanitary which in my view should not even be done at all. Now I have to confess that I really am not even sure what my code (IPC) has to say about this but common sense would say that if it is going to discharge to the sanitary, at the very least, it should run to the stand pipe of a trap and absolutely should have an air gap. I have found them all kinds of ways, sometimes just stuck in a hole drilled in the nearest drain! This morning I find one that is stuck into about a 4" stand pipe :no: of a 2" p-trap located in the drop ceiling of the finished basement just below the ice maker. Ho called and said it has been a problem since they moved in (imagine that) and the odor is bad and something is leaking onto the ceiling tile. I still haven't figured this part out but when I get to the trap above the ceiling, it's wrapped in some kind of silver, insulated, tape and over that is some kind of black tape like that yellow tape that we sometimes wrap copper in to protect it from some other metal. So I'm thinking some goofus used the tape to try and stop a leak maybe in the trap or something. I don't know, it's a new one on me. I cut all the tape away and guess what, no leak. Anyway, the trap and the short stand pipe are the low point and an obvious, undesirable point of over flow in the event of a back up, not to mention the fact that they had simply stuck the ice maker drain directly into the stand pipe which constitutes an air break rather than an air gap.

So here are the options as I see them:

1: there is enough room to extend the stand pipe up through the floor to achieve the minimum 18" for a stand pipe. It could come up in a small utility closet directly behind the back of the ice maker which is very handy. The problem with this is that it is still the low point of the system in the event of any downstream blockage which means it will still back up at this point only now it will overflow onto hardwood flooring instead of ceiling tile. I thought of using a water alarm to warn in the event that this happens but what if noone is home or it's the middle of the night or whatever. 

2: I cap off the existing stand pipe, run a new trapless line from the closet behind the ice maker, through the drop ceiling, roughly 40' to the garage, drop down and discharge to a hvac condensate pump and let it remove the melt from the ice maker. This way it's not connected to the sanitary at all except I'm not sure where the pump discharges to.

I've pretty much decided on option 2 unless someone can tell me why I shouldn't or can't or has a better idea.


----------



## ILPlumber

Indirect waste drains are regulated as to how far they can be run. I think in IPC it's 4'. Time to set a FD. 

Maybe you could sell the consumer a maintenece plan to prevent stoppages. I'd hate to put a backwater valve on it.


----------



## WestCoastPlumber

Indirects are regulated in the UPC on distances and when you need a vent, I think you are IPC, but here is UPC standards

Less then 5', no trap or vent

5' to 15', trap, no vent

15' or more, trap and vent, vent cannot be tied into other vents.

code section- 803.0

Condensate from coolers should be drained to through an air gap, most of the time in a floor sink. This is the most common way.


----------



## smellslike$tome

ILPlumber said:


> Indirect waste drains are regulated as to how far they can be run. I think in IPC it's 4'. Time to set a FD.
> 
> Maybe you could sell the consumer a maintenece plan to prevent stoppages. I'd hate to put a backwater valve on it.


Glad you pointed that out, I really am going to have to review what the code has to say about this. It's really just a crappy situation all the way around.


----------



## smellslike$tome

Wouldn't the distance and/or venting requirements only apply if the drain downstream from the air gap is connected directly to the sanitary. If it is simply discharging indirectly to a condensate pump then it should not matter how far it travels should it? It's kind of like an indirect waste connected to an indirect waste.


----------



## I'mYourTourGuide

Ice makers dump indirectly into Hub Drains here. . . 3" hub drain on a combination hub and floor drain system with a 4" main, and a 4" vent at the end of the main.


----------



## ToUtahNow

I'm not sure there is a limit on the length of an indirect waste but you do have to trap the indirect waste if it exceeds 4' in length. You need to have an air gap into whatever you use for your receptor which is at least 2X the opening of the indirect waste drain pipe.

Mark


----------



## gladerunner

I don't know IPC or UPC codes to well, but what if you installed new condinsate pump directly below ice maker in cealing and then ran the discharge the 40'. would that meet you distance requirement? I'm not a fan of installing pumps where gravity will work , but smetimes you gotta do what you gotta do.


----------



## smellslike$tome

gladerunner said:


> I don't know IPC or UPC codes to well, but what if you installed new condinsate pump directly below ice maker in cealing and then ran the discharge the 40'. would that meet you distance requirement? I'm not a fan of installing pumps where gravity will work , but smetimes you gotta do what you gotta do.


I thought of this too but one day when the pump fails you're right back to being at risk of flooding the hardwood floors and everything underneath in the finished basement.


----------



## smellslike$tome

Ok so I did this job today and this is what I did. Used a 3" self feed bit to drill a hole through the floor of a pantry closet located directly behind the ice maker. I could not find exactly what I thought I wanted in the way of a receptor so I settled on a 4"X2" pvc bell reducer with 21" worth of stand pipe dropping down to a 2" trap located in the drop ceiling of the finished basement. From there I ran about 20' of 2" pvc through the back wall of the garage, dropped down indirectly to another 4"X2" bell reducer (and here is where it gets a little dicey) into which I glued a 2"X3/4" bushing and connected to the condensate drain to the condensate pump which serves a furnace. The actual drain from the ice maker is 1/2". I grossly oversized the indirect waste simply to avoid any blockage issues in the future. The indirect waste was only required to be 1" but when the 1st indirect waste (2") discharges into the second iw it is only 3/4". I know I fudged on this but I really could not come up with another reasonable alternative. In reality I'm certain that it will never be an issue. The ice maker is the only thing that discharges to this line so all it will ever recieve is the melt from the ice and about 1/2 gallon of cleaning waste twice a year. The building drain leaves the building very high on the garage/basement wall and there simply was no viable way to access the sanitary maintaining a minimum 18" standpipe located in a place where it wouldn't hurt anything if it backed up from a downstream blockage.


----------



## gitnerdun

Is condensation a factor on the trap instead of a leak?


----------

