TL;DR
A drain pan is the shallow catch basin installed beneath a water heater, washing machine, or attic air handler to intercept leaks and route them through a drain line to an approved discharge point instead of into the ceiling or floor below. Plumbing codes require one, typically with a three-quarter-inch drain piped to an exterior or conspicuous location, wherever tank failure would damage the building, attic and upper-floor installations above all.
What it means
A drain pan is the shallow catch basin installed beneath a water heater, washing machine, or attic air handler to intercept leaks and route them through a drain line to an approved discharge point instead of into the ceiling or floor below. Plumbing codes require one, typically with a three-quarter-inch drain piped to an exterior or conspicuous location, wherever tank failure would damage the building, attic and upper-floor installations above all. A pan with no drain connection, or one reduced to a rusty sediment tray, offers minutes of protection against a forty-gallon failure, a detail home inspectors photograph constantly.
Where it sits in the glossary
Drain pan is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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