Basement Sump Pump Question

[Dave Verstraete]

Jeff
I share your pain. I had water in the basement once when the back flow valve malfunctioned and the water backed up. Your solution sounds interesting. Currently, I have a separate sump pump next to the main sump with it's own hole in the floor set up as an overflow with a pipe in between. I also have a moisture monitor that sounds an alarm when water touches it.

Stay dry!

[Rob Russell]

I don't know if this is an option for you ...

Our house had a sump pump when we bought it. During the wet seasons, the pump would run every 15-20 minutes. Well, we had a flood when the first pump died. We had a flood when the pipe on the new pump froze outside and the connection at the pump blew because of the pressure.

Our house sits up above the street. I had a contractor come in, dig a trench and install a drain pipe that runs from where our sump was down to the storm sewer in the street. The nice thing about the pipe is it's gravity feed, so power outages and pump mechanical problems don't impact whether the water drains or not.

It cost several thousand dollars to put in the drain pipe, but we considered it to be money well spent. We have had no water issues from that underground water since we had the pipe installed and that was 15 to 20 years ago.

[Matt Meiser]

The drawback to those units is the water usage and associated cost when they run. They aren't an option for me since we are on a well. I have one of the Basement Watchdog units. Our first battery went bad after about a year, but the second has lasted a couple so I figure the first must have had a defect. I have been using the reconditioning feature of my regular car battery charger on it once a year or so too. The Basement Watchdog unit has a probe that goes into the battery to detect low electrolyte level. We have two interconnected sumps adjacent to each other and my plan is to install a second 110V pump in the second sump as a backup to first, with the battery unit just needed in the event of a power failure. We also have a float switch connected to our alarm system which is just above the basement watchdog float so we get a call if that would fail. We used to have a moisture sensor, but that proved problematic as water would condense on it and false-trigger.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I just called Wayne Pumps and told them that my unit boils off water in the battery such that I must add distilled water every 3 to 4 weeks. He said that this was normal. I told him that it eats batteries at a rate of 1 a year.

He said that a sealed lead acid battery is an alternative to an open deep cycle battery. However, when I called a local battery supplier, the supplier strongly recommended against a sealed lead acid battery and recommended I go back to the traditional deep cycle open type.

I'm considering just installing a Battery Tender on a "freedom" car battery and rig up my own float switch. I don't care if the battery is damaged should it be called upon in an emergency. At least, it will run when called upon.

That water powered sump pump is beginning to look better and better!

-Jeff

[Jim Podsedly]

My folks installed a water powered pump after coming home from a long weekend and found a foot of water in their basement.

They had a marine battery backup and that only lasted so long.

You will always have water to power the pump you may not always have electric and the marine batteries only last hours.

They have had no problems and going on a year now.

Jim