If you are a plumber or a trade professional who actively promotes the use of high-efficiency, condensing water heaters, boilers, or furnaces, you should be equally energetic in treating discharge coming from this equipment with some sort of neutralization. That’s the only way to protect your customers’ plumbing from the potentially harmful side effects of the condensation process. As the popularity of high-efficiency condensing products grows, so too will the problem of acidic condensate.
As a matter of fact, International Plumbing Codes (IPC) and National Standard Plumbing Codes (NSPC) 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.