This may be a little different from most drain issues and I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but it is difficult to describe. I am a (very modest) DIYer, so your kind patience appreciated.
We moved into a new (to us) existing home which has a downdraft cooktop in the kitchen. The 4" downdraft exhaust goes down through the cabinet beneath, joins to a 6" thinwall PVC tube up from the foundation, then makes a tight(not sweep) 90 degree turn, then runs approx 30' through the foundation to the outside of the house and exhausts into a small covered concrete box about 8x10x10", the floor of which is about 10" below grade.
When the inside of the tube is dry, the cooktop exhaust works just fine.
No amount of attempted waterproofing of the concrete box seems to work. Every time it rains after I have pumped it out, it fills again. So now ready to try a sump pump option.
I can think of two possibilities: One is to have a sump pump down in the elbow with a pump exhaust tube running the length of the existing pvc exhaust tube and dumping away from the exhaust box outside. I cannot tell what the floor of the elbow looks like or whether the low point is right at the bottom where the elbow is or elsewhere. So question one is what kind of pump is likely to be most effective given these unknowns? I don't know anything about sump pumps, so it would seem that one with a very low suction point would be most effective. Is there a pump that lays horizontally?
Two is what kind of float might be effective in this situation? Clearly it needs to cut off before the water level drops to the same level as the pump intake so the pump doesn't run dry, and hopefully that water level will be low enough to clear the tube sufficiently for the cooker exhaust to function.
If anyone can form an idea from all of the above and send a photo or URL of a candidate pump, that would be most helpful.
I don't know what the air temp of the exhaust gas will be, but likely pretty high, so what type of tubing for the pump exhaust should I use? (I am assuming that the pump will not have a heat issue, but that may be wishful thinking?)
Alternative two would be a pump in the cabinet beneath the cooktop with two tubes from the pump going into the vertical part of the pvc tube, one short one just to the elbow to serve as water intake and the other (exhaust) going all the way to the outside. Same question regarding heat issues?
The advantage of this arrangement may be that, by fiddling with the intake tube, the water level may be able to be reduced lower than alternative one. The disadvantage is that it will need to be activated by a manual switch (unless a float might also work in this arrangement?)
Whew! Apologies again for the length and thanks for any guidance and ideas you might have (please keep in mind I am a noob).
We moved into a new (to us) existing home which has a downdraft cooktop in the kitchen. The 4" downdraft exhaust goes down through the cabinet beneath, joins to a 6" thinwall PVC tube up from the foundation, then makes a tight(not sweep) 90 degree turn, then runs approx 30' through the foundation to the outside of the house and exhausts into a small covered concrete box about 8x10x10", the floor of which is about 10" below grade.
When the inside of the tube is dry, the cooktop exhaust works just fine.
No amount of attempted waterproofing of the concrete box seems to work. Every time it rains after I have pumped it out, it fills again. So now ready to try a sump pump option.
I can think of two possibilities: One is to have a sump pump down in the elbow with a pump exhaust tube running the length of the existing pvc exhaust tube and dumping away from the exhaust box outside. I cannot tell what the floor of the elbow looks like or whether the low point is right at the bottom where the elbow is or elsewhere. So question one is what kind of pump is likely to be most effective given these unknowns? I don't know anything about sump pumps, so it would seem that one with a very low suction point would be most effective. Is there a pump that lays horizontally?
Two is what kind of float might be effective in this situation? Clearly it needs to cut off before the water level drops to the same level as the pump intake so the pump doesn't run dry, and hopefully that water level will be low enough to clear the tube sufficiently for the cooker exhaust to function.
If anyone can form an idea from all of the above and send a photo or URL of a candidate pump, that would be most helpful.
I don't know what the air temp of the exhaust gas will be, but likely pretty high, so what type of tubing for the pump exhaust should I use? (I am assuming that the pump will not have a heat issue, but that may be wishful thinking?)
Alternative two would be a pump in the cabinet beneath the cooktop with two tubes from the pump going into the vertical part of the pvc tube, one short one just to the elbow to serve as water intake and the other (exhaust) going all the way to the outside. Same question regarding heat issues?
The advantage of this arrangement may be that, by fiddling with the intake tube, the water level may be able to be reduced lower than alternative one. The disadvantage is that it will need to be activated by a manual switch (unless a float might also work in this arrangement?)
Whew! Apologies again for the length and thanks for any guidance and ideas you might have (please keep in mind I am a noob).
