My water heater has a 3/4" copper pipe from the T&P valve extending down about 8" from the floor. I have a sump pit about 5 feet to the left. I wanted to somehow route this discharge pipe into the pit in case somethig happens. Obviously it would be easy if I used some kind of flexible hose rated for high temps. Is there anything wrong in doing it this way? How is it usally done?
If you route whatever pipe you use directly to and into the sump, how will you know when it blows?
Obviously the BEST way is a connector, a couple of "Ls" and 10 feet of 3/4" copper pipe (~$200.00).
I'm the opposite of an authority, but I put a pan to catch leaks under the WH and ran plastic pipe from it to the sump. 2-inch or whatever matched the hole in it. I put more of the empty area of the pan below the T&P valve, and now that you mention it, I think I had to put the biggest empty part to the left of the valve, and I pointed the T&P pipe a little to the left, hoping to catch more of what came out. (I noticed a couple weeks ago it was pointing to the left but I coudln't remember why until now. Thanks.)
I've never had water come out of that valve afaik.
Oh, yeah, with the last WH, I had a 2 inch piece of vinyl hose running fitting loosely on the bottom of the pipe and resting in the pan. I could have gotten a hose that would fit better. I don't know why I didn't do that this time.
Why does it have to be high temp. What temp does it release water at? Oh, 210, but clear vinyl seems to be 150 whether braided or not, or maybe 80°C, which is 176F.
Silicone tubing goes up to 500F. I wonder if you can get a piece of that.
What kind of floor do you have? If it's concrete I'd probably just leave it alone. I've never seen one of those valves blow myself. I have seen them develop leaks that you will not notice if you route it into your sump pit. I have seen slow leak failures of hw tanks as well as catastrophic failures. All were the tank leaking, not the safety valve. If you want to do something to protect the floor area of your basement I'd suggest a pan under your hw tank and route a drain from it to your pit. The pan will cvatch the pipe as well.
The answer may depend on your local codes. There is a code in most areas that deals with how the TSP line can terminate. I know it specs a max height above the floor that is allowed. And I think I've seen where code also specs a min height as well. If so, that would seem to preclude routing it directly to the sump pit..... The idea to use a pan under it that would catch both the TSP water and any water leaking from the heater tank and then route that to the sump seems like the best idea. However, that only applies if you're installing a new one and can put the pan in.
I just refinished my basement, all sheetrock. The floor is concrete, with a layer of old 9X9 tiles, and I went over that with new 12X12 vinyl flooring. The pan was not an option because of space limitations in the furnace room. At least the floor is pitched towards the sump, so if anything did happen, the water should flow right into the sump.
or a shark bite, a couple of l's and pipe in pvc.
Do it with CPVC and the cost will be at most $20. Or flex plastic hose as someone down thread suggested for a couple bucks.
Pointing it into a pan first as is also suggested will work for 'leaks' but if it ever blows from overpressure, water will splash all over.
Harry K
I can think of a number of fairly easy ways to do what you want.
Since you mentioned a high temp flexible hose, maybe one easy way would be to go to an auto parts store and buy a length of radiator hose and a hose clamp. Clamp the hose to the existing 3/4-inch copper and run it to the sump pump pit.
Or, get some PVC pipe and fittings and run PVC from the copper to the sump pump pit. They make PVC overflow tubes for hot water tanks that are like the copper one you have now, so regular PVC should be okay in terms of temperature issues etc. You could either use the same size PVC pipe and an adapter to the copper, or you could use a larger PVC pipe and fittings -- such as 1-inch or 1 1/2 inch PVC -- and just have the copper go into the larger PVC similar to the way a washer drain line goes into a larger washing machine drain line.
I don't think it will ever come on in a situation like that. It will just leach into the groundwater. When I first put my pump in the basin, I wanted to test it. I poured a
5 gallon bucket of water in the basin to make it come on, but the water quickly went down and the pump never turned on. I did manage to finally turn it on with 2 buckets poured in.
I've had it happen at least three times that I recall. Made an unholy mess. next place I have, if there's not a floor drain in the room w/ the WH, will have some kind of setup like the OP is describing. The T/ P valves do weaken with age, and have an unfortunate habit of sticking open once released.
First time was Xmas morning @ my parents' house while I was home from college. I went downstairs before anyone else got up and was going to run some laundry; stepped into the (carpeted - really? don't worry, that's been fixed) laundry room and was greeted with warm squishiness. Merry freakin' Christmas, hope you weren't going to take a nice hot shower.
nate
IIRC the code says no unions in the line (which is really inconvenient) and specifies the number of bends and total OAL of the line. I was looking into this at my last place because I wanted to route it into the deep sink, rather than onto the floor (which had no floor drain.) Of course it failed before I got a round tuit, on the upside all that hot water did a nice job of loosening the hideous peel 'n' stick tiles that I'd been meaning to scrape up anyway.
nate
Nice warm squishiness and carpet in wrong place? We rented an apartment in Tx back when. Carpet in kitchen! Disposal vomited contents all over it!
One sometimes wonder what both the builder and buyer thinking on some of the idiocies one sees.
Harry K
Both as far as I know.
Lagging is insulation. Don't know how the name came about. It's what we called a certain removable insulation used in Navy fire rooms. Engine rooms had plenty too. Commonly used around valve flanges, superheaters or other parts that were expected to be disassembled for maintenance. Basically made-to-fit asbestos cloth bags. Think they were filled with more asbestos. Can't remember ever seeing what was inside, or seeing a torn one. The cloth was thick and had bulit-in metal loops so you could wire it up. I forgot most of it. Been over 40 years since I worked with it. The detached one that was smoldering probably had oil spilled on it. Everything was hot there. Lit my smokes in a hole in the insulation of feed pump turbine head. Pump was run by steam superheated to 900 F. Don't know how much heat you need to light a smoke, but it only took a couple puffs when stuck in there near the turbine head. Burned my nose a couple times, but not enough to blister.
--Vic
If this or other possible code issues (such as "no unions" that someone else mentioned) are an issue, then don't change anything with the existing copper pipe. Leave it in place and do the 1 1/2 inch PVC idea I wrote about before. Have the water from the copper pipe enter into a 1 1/2 inch PVC drain line that runs to the sump pump pit in the same way that washing machine hose pump water into a PVC drain line. The PVC would just be a drain that the copper pipe outflow drains into. It would provide an air gap and would not be an extension of the exisitng copper pipe.
I don't get some people... I once lived in a rental house that had carpet both in the kitchen and in the basement (where water would often creep under the basement door after a heavy rain.) Lovely. Likewise I have seen carpeted laundry rooms, bathrooms (eeeeewwwww!) you name it. I would explain it to you if I could, but I can't.
nate
I have to admit that _I_ put indoor/outdoor carpeting in a finished room in out basement...but that was only to keep peace in the house. She relented when I showed her the mushrooms growing in it .
HarryK
"If you have a sump pump and it starts up, it will burn out very quickly, they are water cooled. Hot water is not going to cool it.
Depends!
The "submurgable" pumps are water cooled. But most household pumps have an air cooled motor that's feet above the water that's being pumped. In any case, modern insulation on modern motors can withstand "too hot to touch" temperatures. By the time the motor heat ups, the worse of the crisis will be over and it will be water rather than steam coming out of the TP valve.
While those valves don't "pop" very often when they do, they will vent mostly steam (they are mounted at the top of the tank) and are sized so that even with the heat source "locked on" they will keep the pressure within safe limits. The pipe should be copper as plastic just isn't rated to work at steam temperatures. If it goes to the sump, the cover should have several square inches of "vent space" or else the cover might end up in another corner of your basement!
If your PT valve "leaks" the possibility exists that there is a check valve which prevents the expansion of the water by pushing back. The solution is one of those "expansion" tanks tanks.
Thats what we call soft flexible "bricks" used for removable fire stop like where a cable tray goes through a wall.
Jimmie
Thanks, Vic. Glad you weren't blistered.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.