Short #69 - Trap & Vent

HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

Bryan Orr

Education, Business, Self-improvement, Careers

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2019

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this short podcast episode, Bryan discusses the importance of the trap and vent in condensate drains. He also describes some trapping and venting best practices.

Anytime you have long runs of horizontal drains, you run the risk of having a double-trap. A double-trap creates a water seal, which traps air between the two traps and prevents a system from draining properly. To avoid the complications of double-traps, you can create a proper trap at the air handler. When making a P-trap, make sure the outlet is lower than the inlet; traps need some fall. Then, you would vent it.

When creating a vent, make sure it has enough height to be higher than the pan. That way, it should take longer for the drain to overflow if it backs up. If the system has a float switch, that should be tripped before condensate can overflow from the vent. On RTUs, the cleanout is close to the unit, and the vent will go after that; RTU units can have shorter vents. Do NOT cap the vents.

Some best practices to avoid double-traps include strapping the drain properly. PVC can be especially challenging because it tends to bow and bend over time. Location can also present challenges, as we run drains underground due to the building structures and geology in Florida, which can cause backups. However, in the end, the main goal is to create a drain line that prevents air from blocking up the drain and doesn't cause property damage when it backs up.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this is a short episode of the HVAC School Podcast.
0:07.0	And hey, first off, I want to thank you for making this thing what it is.
0:09.6	I mean, it's crazy.
0:10.6	I get all these emails, all these people saying they're learning stuff and getting better at their jobs and I'm just glad to be a part of it
0:16.4	Any way that I can hopefully I'm not feeding you too much garbage I try I try not to feed you garbage
0:21.8	But anyway I don't think today's episode will be in
0:24.7	question at all from any of you but we'll see but first I got to thank our
0:28.5	sponsors and our sponsors are the same sponsors that we have had for a long time
0:31.6	but I want to remind you that these are the people who make this
0:34.1	podcast possible and those carrier and carrier.com refrigeration technologies at
0:38.4	refriggedec.com speed clean speed clean. speed clean makes all kinds of great cleaning stuff that you're going to want to check out.
0:45.4	Go to speed clean.com, look at it.
0:47.0	You can also find all their products at truetech tools.com or almost all their products.
0:51.4	I think all their products are on there.
0:53.0	Also, Navac, Navac Global.com, Navac makes all kinds of really interesting tools,
0:57.2	especially when it comes to fitting and flaring and swudging copper,
1:01.9	as well as recovery machines and vacuum pumps.
1:04.0	Their NRDD recovery machine is a great recovery machine and they make all kinds of really good vacuum
1:09.0	pumps, a whole line including their cordless vacuum, the NRP 8DI.
1:14.4	That's a really, really great vacuum pump to look into.
1:16.4	It's excellent. It's huge.
1:18.0	It's actually not huge, it's small,
	...

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