Showers venting into attic

chughes

I have two showers upstairs, one in the main bathroom and one in the ensuite. Both have fans which vent the steam into the attic. There are venting pipes attached to the fans and I have them running across the attic to the eaves.


I find that in winter time the steam in the pipes turns back to water before it reaches the end of the pipe. This causes water to gather in the pipe and I have to go into the attic every week to empty the water from the pipes.


Is there something else I should be doing to prevent this build up of water in the pipes in the attic? I'd be interested to hear if anyone else had a similar problem and were able to solve it.

seamus

You need insulated ducting, which will prevent the warm moist air from meeting the cold walls of the duct and condensing.

You can also retrofit insulation to your existing ducting, but insulated ducting isn't that expensive afaik.

You also say that the pipe is running "across" the attic, which can be half the problem in itself. The warmer air wants to rise upwards, so if your ducts are horizontal, it will take far longer for the warm air to move through them, giving more time for the air to condense and water to build up.

Calahonda52

If you can bring the ducting up straight and then turn it so that it flows down towards the eaves then once the water vapour condenses it will run down and out the eaves.
Likewise if you can put some rigid smooth ducting on the first upward leg it will help.
Finally could you run them straight up and through a roof tile.

The current situation, apart from the work, is a serious breeding ground for all sorts of bugs

chughes

Thanks for the replies. Would it be a bad idea to run the ducting into a sealed plastic container which would need to be drained at intervals?

Calahonda52

chughes wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Would it be a bad idea to run the ducting into a sealed plastic container which would need to be drained at intervals?

Very as the risk of the bugs is increased

Wearb

chughes wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Would it be a bad idea to run the ducting into a sealed plastic container which would need to be drained at intervals?

And where would the sealed container vent to?

chughes

Wearb wrote: »

And where would the sealed container vent to?

I thought that the container would have a tap at the bottom which would allow the water to be drained off by hose occasionally. However, it seems that this is not a good idea so I'll drop that thought.