Charlie: Joe writes to us in here. This one came in by Facebook. He says, “I have a question about kitchen air gap s. What is that?
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Tom: Air gap’s this little … Well, it’s kind of an air gap. It’s this little thing that sits on your sink that the drain from the dishwasher goes into, and, then, allows it to breathe so it doesn’t siphon back, and, then, go down into the, usually, your garbage disposal.
Charlie: Okay. Well, he has a single-handle faucet. It’s about two inches away from that air gap. “I’m having a hard time finding a suitable right-handle faucet for my kitchen. I have to install a left one. Do you know if there’s a way to mount that air gap under the sink, or if there’s a low-profile gap on the market?”
Tom: I’d eliminate it altogether. I would run the hose direct. I don’t have one at my house. I try to avoid any time I could, without any code violations, not to put them in other people’s homes. If it was up to me, I’d just cap it, and just use a straight hose, and make sure it loops up and down, and you’ll be fine. Get rid of it because it really doesn’t do a lot of good. I don’t know who came up with that thing.
Charlie: Loop up and down, you mean create like a p-trap type of thing?
Tom: Yeah. It’s got to be a loop up and, then, back down into the garbage disposal. That way it won’t siphon.