I trust you've been able to live with it for twenty years so far?

Haha, yeah, but I cuss a lot more now than I used to! LOL

You can't really see it in the picture, but between the left hole with the blue plug and the hole where there's an actual drain, there's an opening that was clearly put there by the manufacturer but water pours out of it! I'm guessing it's sort of an air vent? But I had to engineer a funnel underneath it to pour the water that comes out of it in to one of the condensate pump openings.

And, of course, I have to take that apart every time I change the filter, too.

That's one funky P-trap!

A condensate pump of the type pictured typically has a number of inlets--it might serve an air conditioner, a high-efficiency furnace, and even a dehumidifier. It doesn't require a trap. I can't offer any reasonable explanation for the twists and turns of the piping enroute to the condensate pump reservoir.

My take away here is that there's no real reason that I shouldn't move the pump to the left side of the air handler, then just run new pipe straight to the nearest hole. I think that's a solid way to invest an hour, it'll save me some headaches later on.

Follow up question:

Is there a reason why this drain has a heavy white PVC pipe instead of flexible tubing? It looks like I could remove that elbow at the top and leave the white PVC screwed in to the air handler, push a flex tube on to the PVC and connect it with a hose clamp, then just pull it over to wherever it needs to go without dealing with a million elbows.

@Stax, there's no need to get your feelings hurt like that. Why delete your post? Even if I'm an idiot (which is entirely possible!), it might have helped someone in the future. Especially if I replied back in a month and said that I ran a straight pipe and that you were right all along.

The video that you posted shows that, without a trap, the water stays in the pan until the heat pump shuts off, and then the water pours out. In case you delete that one, too, here's the video for posterity:

https://youtu.be/vWGLVe-X550

My heat pump has an opening just before the drain outlet, though, so wouldn't that keep the water from staying locked in the drain pan? I can't easily take it apart to find out, but it seems like it would...

Either way, is there a reason to not replace the stiff PVC with flex tubing? I could then just create a drip loop with the tubing to accomplish the same thing, and it would be infinitely easier to clean or move around as needed.

"I am deleting my posts and just want you to understand that the seal or trap is usually absolutely essential to proper operation of your A/C or Heat Pump.

Google on "condensate drain on heat pump needs a trap?""

I don't know enough to know of what's the best practice but to share my own personal experience - having a trap in a drain line from a coil seems not to be a universal practice or code requirement in my area. Water in a trap will evaporate during heating season from the coil-side flow of hot air, whether the heat is from a heat pump or a furnace. I don't have a trap in a recently installed system and when I asked, the explanation I received involved the "dry during heating season anyway" thought and also "we find they can do more harm than good, as they're often a cause of drain line clogs".

I just deleted my response to a couple of ridiculous posts immediately above.

I'm done with it.

I guess the plumber that installed the OP's unit was simply a moron that liked traps. (BTW, in general a condensate removal feature is not required during heating season - unless a whole house humidifier is dumping a lot of water in the coil.)

Also, the literally dozens of plumbers that address the need for a trap are also morons...

Again Google on condensate drain on heat pump needs a trap?

Best of luck to all.

@mike_home, because of the way the trap is in there, it's HARD to remove! Everything's a tight fit, so I have to remove the pump and everything.

But I mentioned before that there's an air vent of some sort that's next to that last outlet hole, and water pours out of it the whole time the heat pump is running. So it can't be that water stays in the drain pain like in the video @Stax posted.

Either way, though, that $17 clear trap is a great addition, thanks! I can just run flex tube straight to that and then to the condensate pump, the whole job won't take 15 minutes :-D