Running water (bad)....

[KC-97HORN]

OK,

got a question for the board.

I bought a house last year and have noticed the sound of running water over the last 3 months (i know- bad sign).

I have spent hours walking around the house, listening for where the sound is coming from and I couldnt pinpoint it.

Finally found the culprit last night.

In my water heater/ AC room in the basement.

Turns out that the cold water pipe has had an attachment added to it. (this is not a backfill emergency drain, and the attachment goes nowhere). There is a very small opening with a tiny clear plastic hose (hose is 8-10 feet long- but only about 1cm diamater) and comes directly off the metal pipe and the hose comes down from the ceiling and goes directly into the drain.

I "crimped" the very end of the plastic line and the water stopped, and (thankfully) so did the water sound, and as far as I could tell- there were no leaks.

My questions is- does anyone have any freaking idea why someone would have attached such a small hose to a normal water pipe (and its obvious that someone purposefully cut into the pipe) and have that water flow directly into a drain?

Confused the **** outta me

 

[Tenor]

I have no idea however you may not want to crimp the line until you find out why it is there. I mean at this point changing something could cause a problem where as leaving it (for now) won't.

 

[BigWill]

Is it possible that a fridge with an icemaker was there?

Maybe they took the fridge when they moved out, and didn't cap the line.

 

[KC-97HORN]

I havent crimped the line yet- its still running.

Big Will- I thought of that, but this is in the basement and the hose fits perfectly into the drain- almost like the freaking drain was designed to have this hose drain into it.

I dont have a "shutoff" valve on this pipe, and its an INCOMING pipe, meaning that this extension cant be an emergency "drain".

The problem is that the water isnt "hurting " anything (other than my pocketbook) and I do plan to cap this in the next few days. The reason I need to cap it is that I guarantee I have about 50-60 gallons a day pouring directly into the drain. That **** ads up quick (and yes I have noticed that my water bill seems out of whack from what should be considered as my normal usage).

I just have no idea why anyone would attach a hose to a pipe and direct it to drain away....

 

[BigWill]

maybe a reverse-osmosis filter hookup?

 

[96 Buff]

According to your profile you live in Kansas City. Could be the prior owners put that in to keep the water moving in winter so the pipes don't freeze, as they may have had freezing problems in the past.

 

[accuratehorn]

Now that was the first really plausible answer. Maybe the house was going to be vacant during the winter, or for sale during the winter, and they didn't want to flood the place after freezing all the pipes.

 

[jcdenton]

Tenor, you might want to update your sig.

 

[KingKoopa]

ever seen The Cell? isn't that the one where the girls are trapped in his basement and he slowly fills their enclosure with water until they drown? i'm sure it was just some type of serial killer type accessory. don't worry about it.

 

[KC-97HORN]

Thanks for the suggestions,

I have a buddy at work who threw in his 2 cents and suggested that since this hose was in the AC/ heater room, that the previous owners had a housewide humidifier- that they took with them when they moved out.

Still confused- but at least I am no longer being driven crazy by running water

 

[96 Buff]

A whole house humidifier makes sense, especially since the hose/pipe/tube is in the same room as the furnace. I just kinda wonder about the necessity of a humidifier in Kansas City, though.