Making an air gap for my water softener drain was simple and straightforward, and I'm glad I realized that I needed one when I did. I'll walk you through the process so you can save yourself some hassle and avoid a potential health hazard.
What is an air gap?
An air gap is a physical break in a drainage system that prevents contaminated water from being able to travel back into a sanitary water source. Typically seen with appliances that drain into a floor drain, an air gap is established by installing a rigid piece of piping on the end of an appliance's drain tube. This piping can be shaped in a way that will leave air space between the drain tube and the floor drain.
Why is an air gap necessary?
The main job of an air gap is to keep dirty water from contaminating clean water. This can happen in many ways. Forces like gravity and suction can cause water to essentially flow backwards in a system.
A great example is in the water softener/floor drain scenario. Imagine if an event occurs that causes a backup somewhere and leads to sewer water coming up from your floor drain. While this is unlikely, the air gap ensures that the sewer water would not be able to force its way into your clean water system. Nobody wants to shower with water from a sewer, right?
One other Big Benefit
The other huge benefit for me was that the rigid piping of the air gap allowed me to control where the water was going when it came out of my water softener.
First Signs of Trouble
I had started to see some water stains on my basement floor, and was starting to see a little bit of moisture built up around my water heater in the morning. I assumed the water heater tank was going bad.
Then one night I was up late enough to hear my water softener running and decided to check it out. When I got downstairs, water was pouring everywhere. The flexible drain hose coming from my water softener that pumped out all of the used water during recharge cycles was just kind of sitting on the floor, not really secured to anything.
There were puddles in the areas where I had seen water stains on the floor. And there was water all around my water heater. The water heater itself wasn't leaking at all. Water was shooting out from this uncontrolled drain hose and going everywhere.