Attic Heater Drain

If water is dripping from your ceiling and your furnace and or air handler is located in the attic the most likely cause is a clogged condensate drain line.

Attic heater drain. Drain pan shall be required when a water heater and or tank is installed in a location where it could cause damage. Camco s 20922 drain pan is a good option for both gas and electric water heaters. Your attic can easily reach temperatures of 120 140 degrees which is optimum for keeping the water in your tank sufficiently hot without using any energy. 2013 cpc section 508 4.

Over time algae can grow inside of this drain line causing backups or clogs. Drain pan shall be installed with a minimum drain outlet and discharge that drains to the exterior of the building or an approved location. If you unscrew the plastic valve too much it will blow away from the water heater and all contents of the water heater will drain into the attic. If your water heater is installed in an attic or ceiling space or inside the interior living space a drain pan is required under your water heater.

With a base of 24 square inches top measuring 25 25 square inches and a depth of four inches this pan can hold a large volume of water in the event of a sudden leak. If you re gonna drain a water heater to keep the sediment down you have to do it in our climate if you don t have a water softener every three to six months. Only two plumbing set ups could require sewer pipes in the attic. I wouldn t drain it.

In case of failure leak to floor sub floor drywall. Whether you need a drain pan under a water heater is mostly determined by the location where it is installed. I m going to throw this out first then we can get into the process. The first would be a bathroom or kitchen in that part of the house and the other would be a pressurized drain system with pipes.

Now a secondary line of reasoning for placing a water heater in the attic is the high temperatures that occur in an attic particularly during the summer months. If you re gonna drain a water heater. Drain pans are not required under the water heaters installed in garages in most states. Yes it is a drain pan and it is under the water heater but the tpr valve drain piping was routed through a roughly cut out hole in the side of the pan so the pan will immediately leak when water drips into it and it has no drain to exterior even if it was watertight.

This would be a good example of how not to install an attic drain pan.