Sump pump

[ohiorider]

Until I moved to Hudson, Ohio, I'd never owned a house that required a sump pump in the basement.  Now, I have two.  One that pushes laundry water into the city sewer system.  The other acts as a catch basin for foundation drain water, which it pushes away from the house to the city storm drains.

In any event, I woke up this morning and heard one of the sump pumps whining away, and it would not stop on its own.  I knew it had been years since this pump was installed .......... wow!  the sticker the plumber had affixed had a date of 2004, 16 years ago.

Well, I hate to do plumbing work, but I also hate huge plumbing bills, so I took on the project myself.  Water from recent rains was still filling the sump, and the battery backed sump was doing its best to empty the sump.  Of course, when I removed the main sump pump, the backup would only empty the sump if I blocked the open pipe with my hand.  What a mess ....... water flying everywhere.

Ace Hardware to the rescue!  I removed the old pump, took it to Ace, and purchased a replacement.  Of course, I was running against the clock.  I needed to pick up the pump and get back home before the sump ran over.

Success .......... I did get the new pump installed.  Wiring is sort of hanging loose, but I'll fix that tomorrow.

Anyway, that was my afternoon!

Bob

[RinkRat II]

         I feel your pain! I was in the pump and compressor business for 30 years and it was very seldom we weren't "under the gun" to repair or replace a piece of equipment. The hardest part was convincing the customer to install redundant eqipment to avoid disaster but the budgets seemed to dictate that option.  If possible can you rebuild your old unit and have a spare sitting on the shelf?  Most pumps of that nature are fairly simple (think guzzi) and can be rebuilt as backup.

   Congrats on avoiding a catastrophe and supporting the local economy.

     PaulB

[pmillar]

Well done! My current house doesn’t have a sump pump, but I did have the experience of walking into a previous house and trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. It was the alarm on the backup sump pump we installed after finishing the basement. It did it’s job, buying me time to replace the main pump while keeping the basement dry. I will never live in a home with a sump pump without a backup installed.

[Gliderjohn]

Oh! Don't even go there concening sump pump issues. Can be very frustrating.
GliderJohn

[ohiorider]

Enjoyed all of your comments.  One last thing to do.  The backup pump (Bsement Watchdog) seems to be fine after several years in the sump.  I spin it up several times a year just to keep things moving, but it hasn't been called on very often.  But it is definitely time to get a replacement battery.  I contacted the mfg, and found that their new no maintenance battery is not designed for the older pump (probably a controller issue) so I'll simply replace with lead acid battery that requires periodic top off with distilled water.  The pitcher with the valve that prevents overfilling makes this fairly easy.

[ahoward125]

I have "sump jets" as a backup. If you have city water you will always have sump pumps. I've been caught in power outages that outlasted my battery backup. I've not needed the sump jets yet, and they do use water (1 gallon used for every 2 gallons removed from your sump pit.

[Muzz]

Still a back-up pump, when I cleaned heat pumps for a living it was always exiting when you were called to service a pump in a server room.  Firms with a good IT department would have two pumps, one set a couple of degrees higher than the other.  If the main one failed, the other would kick in.

In the firms that only had one, the pressure would really come on if it needed a complete strip down.  What temp does your alarm come on at, how much time do I have and if it was stuffed, the panic to get a mobile air con unit set up.  Doesn't pay to cut corners!