# How to set up hot water heater drain pan



## ninfragile19 (Sep 14, 2010)

I'm a newbie, both to this site and to home ownership, so please be kind to my lack of knowledge on this.

When I moved into my condo, my water heater had a drain pan placed underneath and some sort of valve/connector on the side of the pan to allow a hose or pipe to be fed to it so should the tank fail the water can be properly drained via the floor drain in my utility closet. That has yet to be done.

I've been wanting to run a hose from the side of the pan to the floor drain, but I cannot get any good info on how to properly do so. This may be a trite task, but getting the right info for me do have to do this once and be done with it has been a pain.


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## fabrk8r (Feb 12, 2010)

Find a piece of hose that fits snugly on the stub of the pan...it can be anything, garden hose, black plastic hose...I prefer clear poly (reinforced if any traffic) so I can see any blockages. Use a hose clamp to secure it to the pan stub.


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

Choice of:

1. Run the hose along the floor and to a suitable place on a nearby exterior wall where you drill a hole at floor level to the outside to run a short length of pipe as a drain.

2. Run the hose to a similar but smaller tray, also on the floor, in which you have set a sump pump that will come on when the water level in both trays gets almost to the top (about 1-1/2 inches from the floor) of the first tray.

3. Plug the hole in the side of the existing tray and hope that when the water heater leaks or discharges from its relief valve tube you catch it in time to bail it out before the tray overflows.


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## kenmac (Feb 26, 2009)

Code is a 1'' drain line for the pan.. Those small pans will never catch the water from a ruptured wh. I made mine . It's 30x30 with 6'' sides with a 2'' drain


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

If the tray is large enough you can put the sump pump right in it and next to the water heater. If the tray is 6 inches high you can set the sump pump to come on at 5-1/2 inches.

Hopefully when the tank springs a leak it will be small at first giving you ample time to shut off the heater immediately (both heat and water) and drain the tank and bail out whatever small amount remains in the pan.


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## Docwhitley (Jul 19, 2010)

*good Better BEST*

good-I like the Pans.
Better-I feed mine to my sump pump.
BEST- Flood Stop water alarm! There are many on the market... Sorry it is late and I do not want to go look at the one I have and I do not want to seem to be pushing one over the other... Basic Idea is that it shuts off the supply line if water hits the pan.

Why all three... if PRV blows... It will shut off supply- Good
now if water heater leaks or develops a hole... then it pumps to my sump pump which pums out the water .... shuts off water supply.... now you hhave nothing to worry about on your next vacation... 

Oh just a rough guess but if a 50 gallon water heater breaks.... you will have about 70 gallons of water to worry about my way (estimate 20 gallons in the pipe that will flow back to water heater

not my way.... long week end- 3?4 inch supply line providing average flow rate of 1420 gph.....plus 70 from previous equation..... 51260 gallons in 36 hours..... hmmmmmmm that is why I like the shut off alarms!!!!


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## Michael Thomas (Jan 27, 2008)

Also, keep in mind that if you use a deep pan, unless you want to risk submerging the burner assembly (expensive to replace on newer WHs), you need to elevate the base of the heater in the pan.


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