Is my furnace pipe supposed to be fully sealed together?
Discovering a pipe just resting against a joint after a furnace or water heater replacement makes it look like the installation was done incorrectly. Because it is unclear exactly what the line does or if it relies on a negative vacuum to pull gas out, it is impossible to know if the gap is a serious hazard.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Pushing the pipes back together manuallyDid this help you?
- 2Removing the top door of the furnace to trace where the pipe goesDid this help you?
- 3Posting photos online for technicians to identify the pipeDid this help you?
- 4Posting pictures on online forums to ask professionals if it looks normalDid this help you?
- 5Calling the original installer back to inspect and fix the connectionDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Clearer picture, it’s not actually inside the fitting. You can see better here. Is there negative vacuum in this that pulls the gas up and out?”source ↗
“After he left I noticed a gap where these portions of pipes connect. I tried to reconnect but I’m not sure if it’s fully sealed or tbh what this pipe fully does.”source ↗
“Anything of concern?”source ↗
“No clue. This is the first I noticed it. Water heater was replaced in May and they replaced this whole vent piece because my previous water heater was 25yrs old. I went downstairs to get Christmas decorations out of my basement this AM and saw it like this and thought that doesn’t look right.”source ↗
“Is this supposed to be fully sealed together? This line comes off my furnace and is just resting up against this joint piece (not sure what that’s called). Is this done correctly?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 7What to do with old water pipes after removing a fixture?
- 2Where is the black debris clogging my shower head coming from?
- 7Kitchen tap internal pipe disconnected with no slack
- 4How to tell if crusty residue on a basement pipe is a sewage leak
- 4How to get a stuck broken plumbing drain piece out
- 10How to find where an unmapped drainage pipe discharges