I have an issue the draining of an ice maker in a house that I recently purchased. The home has a wet bar with a late mode GE Monogram ice maker. There is no drain available directory below the ice maker so the previous owner had the ice maker draining to a sink drain that is two cabinets over from the ice maker. He had the ice maker drain plumbed below the sink trap but without its own trap. My home inspector caught this and made note in the home inspection report. The home owners attempted to fix this issue but made things worse. He moved the ice maker drain line to connect on the sink drain but above the sink drain trap. So he basically had a vertically drain falling from the sink and about 8 inches down from the sink he had a T in the sink drain pipe that T'd off at a 45 degree angle to the ice maker drain. There were numerous problems caused by this.


Whenever the sink water is turned on, the water was draining into the ice maker when it backed up at the trap. Also the T joint in the sink drain was about 12 inches higher than the bottom of the drain outlet in the ice maker so he had a horizontal run of about 3 feet while running vertically uphill about 12 inches and he does not have the optional drain pump for the ice maker. So the ice maker will not drain its condensations up hill and to compound matters, the sink is draining into the ice maker.


When I checked the ice maker after closing, it was about half full of water and will not drain.


I do not want to spend $600 on GE Ice maker drain pump and would like to come up with a solution that use gravity to drain the ice maker properly and without a drain pump.


I had a plumber come out and he claimed that an ice maker should never be drained into the houses regular plumbing drain lines and that it should have its own dedicated drain to drain directly outside the home and due to the location of the ice maker in the home, this would be very difficult to do after the fact. This also conflicts with everything that I have read online.


How can I safely and effectively drain this ice maker into the adjacent under cabinet drain for the sink without the sink water draining into the ice maker and without a pump? I do have approximately 4 inches of drop over the 3 feet of horizontal run from the bottom ice maker drain origination to the point in the sink drain that is below the existing sink drain trap. It looks like there is already a old junction point off the sink drain line below the sink drain trap but the junction is capped off and not in use for anything.


Can I tap into the junction point to drain my ice maker? The junction point is at the level were it should allow enough fall over the 3 foot run from where the ice maker drain originates. However if I need to add a separate trap for the ice maker drain, I'm don't think that can be done while still keeping it below the level where a would have enough fall for gravity to drain the ice maker without a pump.


The other option is that I can cut a hole through the wet bar cabinets from the ice maker going the other direction to the right opposite sink. I would have to cut through two cabinets and through the outer wall of my house. I would have about 4 inches of fall over 6 feet of run, but this outer wall of my home leads onto my covered lanai which has travertine stone tile. I am afraid that draining the ice more here will cause the lanai to be wet and slippery.

If there is a slope problem, purchase a small Condensation Discharge pump (about $50.00) and run outlet back to the sink drain. Discharge tube is a 3/8" plastic tubing attached with s.s. clamps. Pump has back-flow valve built. It is a simple solution to your problem. Let me know if that works for you. Back to you. Milo

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I have that pump on my I and he and I'll AC condensate line. They work great. However, I would much prefer that gravity be used then a mechanical option. If there's a way to use gravity that's the way I would go.. Good luck, Tom