This is in the basement with the HVAC, water heat, and water softener. The trap dries out and releases nasty sewage gas smell into the house. Sometimes frequently, sometimes not. I have been adding water at the hvac drain because it has an open pipe that I can put a funnel in and pour water down the pipe shown on the left. I'm pretty sure this is my problem because the more often I do this, the less often I have this issue. I had two plumbers come out and they both said that what is pictured here was a normal/common thing. Besides that, I actually had a blockage in the pipe and this is where the backup came out from. If you look at where the smaller pipe goes into the larger pipe down into the trap, that is just an open pipe. And so if the sewage line going out of the house gets blocked, any drainage during the blockage will come out here and actually spread across half my basement with sewage water. I have since cleaned, bleached, cleaned and bleached again. I added a water sensor right under it as well. The HVAC has a water sensor as well and that is how I found out the first time but this will give me an earlier indication if I have another backup.
Basically I just need to know if there is a better way to do this so that it can help alleviate the smell we sometimes get.
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