If you're a plumber or a trade professional advocating for high-efficiency, condensing water heaters, boilers or furnaces, it's crucial to also prioritize the neutralization of discharge from these appliances. This step is essential in safeguarding your customers' plumbing systems against the potentially damaging effects of acid condensate. With the growing trend towards high-efficiency condensing equipment, the issue of acidic discharge is set to increase, underscoring the importance of preventive measures.

What is condensate?  

High-efficiency condensing water heaters, boilers or furnaces operate by burning natural gas or propane. The technology behind these systems conserves energy by optimizing the amount of heat transferred to the water during combustion. However, a consequence of this energy-efficient process is the production of wastewater, also known as condensate.

Condensate can potentially lead to property damage or pose health risks by compromising indoor air quality. Often, the condensate struggles to drain effectively through gravity alone, especially in installations that lack traditional, below-floor drainage systems. This drainage challenge can result in property damage and may jeopardize health by negatively impacting the air quality inside buildings.

Why neutralize? 

1. It prevents damage to plumbing systems and infrastructure

Condensate tends to be acidic because of the chemical reaction caused by the heat of the gas burner. Indeed, the higher the efficiency rating, the higher the acid level in the water runoff. 

The higher front-end costs of high-efficiency equipment are typically justified by lower energy consumption and the resulting lower monthly fuel bills. But those savings could be wiped out and then some if the plumber must return in just a few years to tear out and redo all the plumbing.

This runoff could also cause serious damage to local sewers and water-treatment facilities. Pumping the acidic waste outdoors or into sanitary sewers could contaminate the groundwater or degrade the local water infrastructure. 

The smart, long-term solution is to neutralize the acidic content in the condensate waste before it ever enters any piping.

2. It injures septic systems

For homes with septic tanks, condensate waste might also destroy the good bacteria that is essential to keeping the system operating properly.

3. Most plumbing codes require neutralization for corrosive waste

International Plumbing Codes and National Standard Plumbing Codes require neutralization for corrosive waste. To elaborate: IPC and NSPC state that corrosive liquids, spent acids or other harmful chemicals that destroy or injure drain, sewer, soil or waste pipe, or create noxious or toxic fumes, or interfere with sewage-treatment processes shall not be discharged into the plumbing system without being thoroughly diluted, neutralized or treated by passing through an approved dilution or neutralizing device. 

Intended to ensure the proper installation of plumbing systems, the NSPC provides local and state governments, code administration bodies, and the industry with a modern code to protect health and promote safety. 

The IPC is a proven, comprehensive model plumbing code that works seamlessly with ICC's family of building codes. It sets minimum regulations for plumbing systems and components to protect life, health and safety of building occupants and the public. Available for adoption by jurisdictions ranging from states to towns, the IPC is currently adopted on the state or local level in 35 states in the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

Although IPC requires condensate waste neutralization, enforcement is spotty. Some sections of the country, such as New England, strictly enforce the code requirements; others — including the Far West — tend to be lax. 

Even so, the trades must become more aware of this problem. The plain fact is, the acid in the condensate will just eat away the piping.

What is the best way to neutralize? 

Neutralization can be accomplished in several ways:  

1) Manually, by cutting a bed of limestone into the floor where the condensing water heater, boiler, etc., is located, and letting the condensate drip into it.  

2) Positioning a limestone-filled cartridge inside of the condensing unit to neutralize the corrosive water internally. 

3) Hooking a neutralization kit — essentially, a piece of pipe filled with limestone — to the exterior of the condensing equipment and letting the condensate flow through it. 

Saniflo manufactures a neutralizing product that fits into a category of its own. One with a more sophisticated, two-in-one approach. While neutralizers and condensate pumps have historically been installed separately, the sleek, lower-profile Sanicondens Best Flat combines them into a single, space- and cost-saving system. The pump ensures condensate waste does not linger inside or around the water heater or boiler; the neutralizer removes the acidity that would damage water and sewer pipes.

The two-in-one pump-neutralizer combination makes this product the ideal, environmentally friendly solution for today’s ultra-high-efficiency condensing equipment, both residential and commercial: boilers, water heaters, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems, and other appliances.

How does a two-in-one condensate pump work? 

The Sanicondens Best Flat is capable of serving multiple mechanical systems with combined inputs of up to 500,000 Btu per hour. Condensate from this equipment enters the neutralizing system through either of two incorporated, 1-inch inlets: one on the side, the other on top.

The arrival of the condensate automatically activates a float mechanism inside the Sanicondens Best Flat. This, in turn, starts the motor whose spindle/shaft drives the pump impeller. 

Condensate is directed from the condensing appliance through an easy-to-refill, pH-neutralizing limestone pellet tray. After coming into contact with the neutralizing pellets, the condensate is pumped safely away through a 3/8-inch discharge line into the sanitary sewer or a septic tank. 

Enforcement of the condensate-neutralization codes will likely increase as the corrosion problem — and its potential toll on plumbing systems — become more widely recognized. But if you are a plumber who installs condensing equipment, you should not wait — if only for the sake of your customers.

According to Energy.gov, high-efficiency condensing boilers, HVAC systems and water heaters will cut homeowner fuel costs dramatically. But to achieve maximum value — and to ensure the customer’s money-saving investment doesn’t cause problems that cost thousands of dollars more down the road — it is vitally important to neutralize the corrosive condensate waste such products emit.

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