question about dry traps (very exciting)
i have to put a drain in a laundry room floor because the HO’s had their drain jump out of its chute and flood the place, so they want one, and they figured, “let’s ask the cabinet guy if he’ll do it”. sucker that i am, i conceded to it. please do not offer suggestions for alternatives, i know what they are, but this is what they want and it’s what i’m going to have to put in.
the problem is, the trap is never going to see any added water, so it is going to evaporate and let sewer gas in. in order to avoid this, i swear i saw something that amounted to a dry trap, and worked kind of like that hokey gutter thing that retracts when no water is running through (i.e. no sewer gases coming back in), and allows water thru when it flows the other way. it was designed for just this type of situation. if i imagined it, tell me. if not, please let me know what it is and where it is, or an alternative check valve or something that would perform the same function. 2″ abs drain, if that matters.
i hate when i get sucked into doing plumbing jobs. thanks for the help, and i promise to just tell them to get a plumber from now on.
jason
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“the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. one should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.”- f. scott fitzgerald
Replies
Yes, you where hallucinating.
But don't worry so there the editors of FHB and JLC. It was in the new products list a month or 3 ago. Unfortuantely I don't remember the name.
The old solution to this was to use a self-priming drain. But they are expensive and need water plumbed in also.
Evidently, you don't think these HOs can be taught the necessity of adding a little water to the drain once in a while. <G>
That being so.....you could pour a few ounces of vegetable oil or mineral oil on top of the water in the trap and that should prevent evaporation for a long time. The vegetable oil might turn rancid after a while and develop a little smell as result. Not sure how long for that to happen with the mineral oil, but I'm thinking it would take longer.
Im thinkin you still need a plumber.
Tim
Here's what you're hallucinating about:
http://trapguard.com/
-Don
I have also heard of something that adds a little water to the floor drain every time another drain is used.
It involves connecting a small pipe from the laundry drain to the floor drain. I've never seen it, and I don't know how it works. Some plumber told me about it once.
Trapguard or a trap primer. Trapguard is a new product, wish I had seen it before I had my plumber put in trap primers on my floor drains.