GFCI’s look for a difference between power in and power out. They are required by code. It is possible there is an issue with the pump and just as much a chance there’s an issue with the GFIC!
Change the GFI, then the pump.

As I said earlier, I’ll break the A/C when it fails but not the heat! Too much chance of collateral damage shutting off heat.

 

I still think the rain is involved somehow. The GFCI worked fine for 4 days and then suddenly trips twice during a major rainstorm and then is fine again once the rain stops.

I really hope it’s the GFI or pump, but I fear it’s not.

If the pump stops working and the furnace keeps going, won’t that cause the pump to overflow water onto the floor? If so then breaking just the A/C will result in significant damage to the house as when I had a water heater leak in that room it trickled down from the 2nd floor and started raining in the kitchen kept going to the basement. I caught it after about 5 minutes and it still caused a lot of damage.

 

Really depends on your local code.
I drain mine out to a flower bed.
But if I was two miles east I would have to drain into the city sewer.

A gravity drain is always best


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If old system was upflow electric furnace and new code required heat pump,the drain outlet is now a lot lower and may not have enough pitch compared to the old system. That may be why a pump was added

 

The old system never drained for heat. The new system does so draining it outside is not an option as in winter that could cause the pipe to freeze and the water to back up. That was the reason I was given. It has nothing to do with the pitch as the old pipe went into the floor.

 

My own personal opinion is a gravity drain is ALWAYS better that a drain that needs a pump. In your case, might be some local codes involved. Years ago there was this guy that needed to put in a French drain. Which was a pit filled with rock. Still better than a pump that you know will have problems down the road.

 

That heater Might produce a gallon of water in 24 hours. You can't compare it to a water pipe leaking several gals an hour.

 

Maybe not comparable, but it could still cause damage if I’m not home for 8 hours or even if I am and don’t notice the pump failed.

If the gfci is the breaker or elsewhere, it could also be protecting outside outlets that get wet during rain. have also seen a pump trip gfci, bad gfci, other items on circuit trip gfci

There’s another GFCI connected to outside. That one didn’t trip. It looks like the tankless water heater is also on an GFCI outlet off the same circuit and that didn’t trip. I’m not entirely sure as both electrical wires go back behind the furnace.

Speaking of the tankless water heater. They installed a Rinnai RU199 and according to the installation manual it also has a condensate drain, which they just ran down into a hole in the floor in addition to the pressure relief pipe. If that runs outside I would expect it to also freeze up, so I wonder why they didn’t just run the HVAC condensate to the same hole. It’s only a few feet away. They could have easily sloped it.

I’m assuming the two pipes going out from the HVAC to the pump are for the A/C (top) and furnace (bottom)? If the A/C could have gone out the existing pipe which they let open in the wall and the heat could go in the floor. The piece of duct tape covers the hole that the pressure relief used to drain into for the old water heater. They put both relief and condensate into the drain the tub under the old water heater used to drain into.

 

If the gfci is the breaker or elsewhere, it could also be protecting outside outlets that get wet during rain. have also seen a pump trip gfci, bad gfci, other items on circuit trip gfci

 

Just make sure that the pump is in a secondary basin of some sort so that if it does leak you have a while to catch it before it causes problems and then put a water sensor alarm in that basin and you're good to go.

 

Turns out the holes drain outside.

 

I hate it when people put in unnecessary drain pumps. God gave us gravity for a reason so use it.

 

Again explain how the condensation can be drained in the winter time without a pump when the only drain that be reached by gravity goes outside. People keep saying don’t use the pump, but I don’t see how that’s possible.

Note it was 22 degrees out Sunday.

 

So what happens to the condensate from the hot water heater?

 

They are draining it outside. I asked about that, but they said it generates very little condensate so it’s highly unlikely to block the pipe, which is about double the width of a normal PVC pipe.

They said the HVAC furnace generates a lot of condensation being a 96% HVAC. I confirmed that with them several times. The other day when the heat was cycling every 15 to 20 minutes or so, I heard the pump at least once an hour. Even today, when the heat didn’t kick on much, I heard it a couple of times.

Having made the mistake of draining a humidifier down the A/C condensation pipe in the winter only to have the water freeze near the opening and back up the pipe and out the overflow pipe, I’d like to avoid that with the furnace. Especially since the pipe is under the floor, so if it overflows it would overflow into the first floor ceiling.

The only way I could see gravity working would be to install a drain that goes to the sewer or maybe down to the sump pump, but I’m assuming that would be a major project.

 

They are idiots…
The water heater will output twice the condensate as the furnace… when the water heater is operating… the furnace will operate for longer periods of time of course.
The water will be warm when it drains… so… it shouldn’t freeze.

 

Gfci breakers are built to a higher standard and far less likely to nuisance trip. If the panel is nearby I would suggest a breaker over receptacle.
Warm water freezes faster than cold water. It is called the Mpemba effect (Seems strange but the molecules are farther apart). Condensate pumps also have a tendency for nuisance trips. I hate hate hate putting them on gfci for this sole reason. I have often times hard wired pumps for this reason.

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My understanding is the condensate is cold water.

I took a good look at the floor “drains” last night and they aren’t proper drains. They are basically 3 open end 2” plastic pipes flush with the floorboards which merge below the floor, flow down to the basement and out the back. They were designed to catch leaks from the water heater, washer and the pressure relief valve.

It doesn’t look like they were designed for day to day use as when I look down into the pipes I can see standing water. At the outlet it goes out horizontally from the house about a couple of feet and stops, which also is wet inside. It doesn’t bend down like the old a/c condensation pipe does. It looks like it’s designed to get a large amount of water out of the house as fast as possible. I don’t know how long it would take an open 2” pipe to freeze over, but if it does it’s going to rain in the kitchen.

Winter is over so I should be good till next Winter, assuming mold doesn’t grow in the pipe or insects don’t block the exit.

 

As a follow up. We had a couple of below freezing days (unusual for March) and I checked the outside pipe and it had some ice in it. I called and they added a second pump and put the tankless and a/c into it. It’s plugged into the same outlet as the tankless which a different outlet than the first pump.

Hopefully the pumps don’t have issues. I haven’t had the GFI kick on the original pump the heat drains into, but that happened after a prolonged torrential rain which hasn’t happened again since then.

 

So what preventing the new drain from freezing?