Hi all! My parent’s basement needs a dehumidifier badly. I want to run a line out of the dehumidifier so they don’t have to dump it six times a day. There is piping in the basement for an unfinished bathroom. Can I somehow run a line from the dehumidifier through one of these pipes? Perhaps the toilet drain? Maybe the sink drain to the right? Please let me know what you think and how I would go about doing it without compromising anything. Thank you!
Draining a dehumidifier via house plumbing
- Thread starter Hubman
- Start date
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Remove the temporary rubber plug in the end of this pipe and install a P-trap . Then secure your dehumidifier hose into the inlet of the trap. You could put a 6”-12” stub of pipe into the inlet of the trap and then drop your dehumidifier hose into it.
Simple.
Simple.
Thank you for this. You are going to kill me, but, what will the P trap look like? Also do you mean 6-12 inch stub for the P trap? I understand removing the end part here, but then things get confusing.
Google 2” pvc sch.40 ptrap. Buy one, some 2” pvc pipe and some pvc solvent. I suggest a small small can of oatey blue glue.
Then get you about 8” of pvc and cement it into the inlet of the ptrap.
Drop your dehumidifier drain hose into the stub of pipe you cemented into the inlet of the trap.
Then get you about 8” of pvc and cement it into the inlet of the ptrap.
Drop your dehumidifier drain hose into the stub of pipe you cemented into the inlet of the trap.
Just a couple of things that came to mind. This is a P-trap.
The horizontal connection should be glued onto the existing sink drain stub out. The 6", 8", or 12" stub of pipe Twowaxhack mentioned should be glued into the vertical connection of the P-trap.
The dehumidifier will obviously need to be elevated so the drain hose can gravity flow into the P-trap. Realize that the P-trap needs to have water retained in the trap to keep sewer gases from entering the basement area. If the dehumidifier produces condensate continuously 365 days a year, no problem. But if there are months when there is not high humidity in the basement, you should pour water into the trap to avoid the water from evaporating. A bit of mineral oil will also float on top of the water and prevent the water from evaporating.
The horizontal connection should be glued onto the existing sink drain stub out. The 6", 8", or 12" stub of pipe Twowaxhack mentioned should be glued into the vertical connection of the P-trap.
The dehumidifier will obviously need to be elevated so the drain hose can gravity flow into the P-trap. Realize that the P-trap needs to have water retained in the trap to keep sewer gases from entering the basement area. If the dehumidifier produces condensate continuously 365 days a year, no problem. But if there are months when there is not high humidity in the basement, you should pour water into the trap to avoid the water from evaporating. A bit of mineral oil will also float on top of the water and prevent the water from evaporating.
Thank you! So remove the cap and put the p trap on the pipe sticking horizontally out of the wall? Then stick the 8” stub vertically in the other end of the p trap? Have the dehumidifier high, letting gravity help drain into the pipe stub?
This will be in coastal Virginia, so humidity is bad in the summer and whatever in the winter. I’d like to keep them constantly running, but it might be pretty dry in the winter. If I turned them off in the winter, could I just put the cap/seal back on the pipe stub? Also, do I just stick the drain hose from the dehumidifier into the pipe stub? How far down? Thank you!!
This is basically what you’re trying to accomplish. A 2” p-trap with a short pipe stubbed up and your dehumidifier hose dropped into that pipe about 3-4”. It’s simple, no need to think it’s not.
Yep, that's it. Or you can cut the pipe sticking out a bit if you want leaving enough to glue on the P-trap. Just make sure the drain line from the dehumidifier is high enough so that the hose from it slopes down to the top of the 8" vertical piece.
If the dehumidifier is higher than the top of the 8" vertical piece, it doesn't matter how far down the hose can go. I would just put it about halfway down the 8" piece. If the basement is usually occupied, you can leave everything in place. Then, if someone smells any sewer smell, just pour some water into the P-trap. It will probably take a few weeks for water to evaporate from the trap, so I would just leave everything in place and add water if someone smells a sewer smell. Or pour a bit of mineral oil like I said earlier. Even vegetable oil will work, but that can attract bugs and possibly become rancid.
