We had a dehumidifier installed in our indoor greenhouse along with a mini split last summer. They ran a drain line outside and into a french drain. They also put heat tape around the drain pipe and covered that with foam insulation. This past Sunday there was water on the floor and a service call was made. The technician who came believed that the problem was because water had frozen in the line. They want to come back and install a tee so that we can dump hot water in the drain pipe and clean the line with bleach. Really? I read nothing in the install instructions about a tee and cleaning the drain line.
We did have a power outage a week ago for about 6 hours when it was extremely cold. I am sure that any water in the line outside could have frozen. But wouldn't the heat tape have melted the water in a week?
The line coming out of the house extends about 6" then an elbow sends the pipe down into the French drain. The heat tape is wrapped to within 6" of the ground.
Q1. Are these tees common practice?
Q2. Shouldn't the heat tape have melted any water in the pipe?
Q3. Anyone else have a dehumidifier draining to the outside in cold weather with a different install solution?
I am afraid the contractor wants to take a shortcut with the tee and have me monitor a freezing pipe. I do not want to wait until water is running out of the bottom of the dehumidifier and then run to get hot water and take care of a frozen pipe.
Sorry for the long post but necessary to explain.
Any thoughts or suggestions is greatly appreciated.