Irrigation drainage

For those of you using a drainage system for a small automated top feed system where do you drain to? Is draining directly to waste best? Or should I collect the drain off to test ph and ec?

What media are you using?

Coco perlite 70/30…for now I’m collecting, as it’s my first grow I’m gauging the appropriate amount of water/runoff. But once I get that down I think I’d like to have a condensate pump to pump it straight to waste.

i drain into a small tub that i empty after each watering (2-3x per week)

i use diluted runoff for a variety of things:
-clones/seedlings
-flowers outside
-dead grass areas

That is exactly what I’m doing, 2 small waterings a day and I catch the runoff in a container and then I jug it for my tomatoes and my mother plant and clones.

I use coco/perlite 70/30. I have a reservoir under the plant with a cheap pump that I have connected to a timer to top feed 3X daily. It drains back into the reservoir. I don't have to do much during veg except adjust ph a little and maybe add a little every now and then. Im in mid flower now (week 5) and I'm adding 3 gallons every 3 to 4 days and adjust ph. I do change out the whole reservoir every 2-3 weeks but probably don't have to.
I've done numerous grows like this and don't have any trouble. (My soil grows are another story)
I'm not knocking your style, just curious why drain to waste? I know you use the runoff for other things but why not recycle it to feed your grow?
Just trying to understand.
As info my reservoir holds 15 gallons and there's only one plant so with that volume EC stays pretty even.

I lost a whole room to pythium, so I’m very careful about the length of time I keep a reservoir and at what temperature.
(The grow I am doing now I consider my first grow, but technically that was, about 5 weeks from seed and they all went down.)

I use a cheap small wet vac that mounts on a standard 5 gal bucket.
Easy to suck up the waster water and dump it on outside plants etc.
Got mine at the local big box hardware/lumber store (it's called a bucket head)