I know it may feel like you’re the low man on the totem pole around here at the People’s Republic of Munch, and I want to reassure you - you are. You’re the absolute lowest thing I own, and I keep you as far away from me as possible at all times. This isn’t a “the world needs ditchdiggers” speech (though if I were to repurpose anything around here to dig ditches, it’d probably be you). I truly appreciate everything you do. We’ve gotten an unbelievable amount of rain this year, and you’ve done your job better than I ever could have. I just want to let you know that last night, the heavens opened up, and as we speak, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of gallons of water seeping into the soil and headed right for you.
If there’s anything you need over the next 24 hours, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I’ll try not to bother you, and let you do your thing. I just wanted to take this moment (it’s not really the calm before the storm if we’re in the middle of a storm) to let you know how much I truly appreciate - even love - you.
I have no idea how big of a difference it makes, but when I’m about to have one of those days, where I know it’s going to run almost constantly for the 24-48 hours, I put a fan on it, just to help keep it from over heating.
The motor is rated for continuous service so it should be OK. Best bet would be to have a spare or a second online or a backup system. Eventually , everything fails.
My rule is to have the next sump pump already purchased and waiting to be installed. Sump pumps always fail in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend.
I know you have been working hard, just like your buddy over at Munch’s house because I hear that soft little clunk from the pipe as you shut off. I know that you would never give up on me, and that it wasn’t your fault a couple years ago when that ingrate the check valve decided he was too good to go on working for the man. I hope that you don’t mind that I gave you a companion to keep you company. She’s not a replacement, she is there to help you carry the load when you just don’t have the energy to keep going. I hope the two of you have a long and productive partnership. By the way, I hear she can generate quite a bit of suction when you turn her on. Just saying.
The fan shouldn’t be necessary, as long as you have sufficient airflow around the motor head since it isn’t submerged.
I envy you the rain, it’s been dry dry dry dry dry here. I normally just let the grass in the yard brown up, but it’s so bad this year I have to actually put the sprinkler out every day to keep it just brown.
Yeah, I know it’s not really necessary. It started the first time because we got sooo much rain* that it was starting to come up between the foundation and floor. My carpet was getting wet so I put the fan on the carpet. At one point I realized that until the water stopped coming in, the fan was useless so I figured I might as well put it on the sump pump. If it died, I’d be really screwed. I already enough water down there, I didn’t need the crock overflowing.
*During that rain storm a lot of people in my subdivision got anywhere between a few inches and few feet of rain water in their basements. Over in my parents subdivision, they were getting between a few inches and 8+ FEET of sewage in their basements.
I had no idea people lived in houses that flooded without electricity and with rain, things that tend to happen together (storms).
Now that I have learned this, I think it’s ridiculous. What kind of friggin’ idiot architect builds a house with a basement in a location with a water table that low?
It’s not that the water table is high, it’s the rain water seeping down from the surface towards the water table. If the rain is heavy enough, on it’s way down, some of it will attempt to enter your basement. The sump pump catches this and pumps it away from the house. This is one of the reasons you have gutters as well, they’re your first line of defense against this.
You might as well ask why people live where they need levees to protect them. Doesn’t make sense, but they do. They’ve made a value judgement and something outweighed the criteria “live on high ground”. You could as easily ask why people live where mudslides, earthquakes, tornados, tsunami, or snow occurs.
FWIW, some of these situations are borderline. 99.9% of the time, a sump pump would be unneeded, but that 0.1% can be expen$ive if the pump isn’t there.
In our case, we live on a saddle, at the highest point of the subdivision, and the foundation has a french drain installed…and yet, my sump kicking on was an indication that something wasn’t right…the sprinkler had sprung a leak.
That is also why a lot of people have a backup pump that runs off of a battery or off of city water pressure. Or so I’ve heard, but what do I know, I’m a friggin’ idiot.
I have one that is battery powered but I always wonder if it is going to work when I need it. I have installed the same system in many home over the years as well as the water powered units. The biggest probem is the same as mine. It hasn’t been needed for 5 years since I put it in and I can’t tell if it works until it is to late. I have started to buy a system from Elburn Illinois that does self testing and diagnostics. Our clients love it and it calls them and email us if a problem come up.
Since this is my first post and I don’t want to get into trouble for promoting a product I am going to leave out the name but I thought everyone should know that such a system is out there. With a little bit of searching you should be able to find more information.
Unplug it, or rather unplug both your pumps if it’s a backup and fill the crock with water. If it works, it’ll kick on long before you can fill the crock with water.
you can test your sump pump backup system (battery or water powered) by unplugging your electrical mains powered sump pump. always good to periodically test your backup systems and see that there is air pressure in your spare tire.
a house not close to the water table can have water in the basement. if the soil or surface does not admit water quickly then water will flow downhill on top of and in the topsoil layer, a house may be in the path for water runoff from a large area. a house on rock or clay soil will not drain the water in the surrounding yard. the basement wall to soil interface provides a channel for water in a clay soil. in areas of clay soil every house with a basement will have a sump pump.
I don’t understand how the system works. Would someone mind explaining it? I always assumed a basement was like a giant bathtub sunk into the ground, with a wood frame house built on top of it. How does the water get in? Does the water level rise above the bathtub-like basement and start spilling in? Are there holes in the basement where water seeps in from the saturated earth around it? Is it drainage/damage control where the water is let in because its too hard to keep it out, and the pump just pumps that water somewhere else as it comes in?
The floor of the basement and the walls are not sealed so it can get in at that edge. If they were sealed, and the water table were to rise above that point, it could actually lift the house up. Not that your house is going to pop out of the ground, if the entire west side of your house moves up a half inch, it’s going to cause a lot of problems.
The sump pump sits about 2 feet below the basement floor and does two things. First, when water starts nearing the bottom of the house, it turns on and does it’s best to pump that water away from the house. Second, around the edge of the house, where the floor meets the wall, there’s a tube with holes in it. When rain water runs through the earth and gets to that point, instead of entering your house, it enters that tube and runs back to the crock where the sump pump pumps it away.
concrete walls (poured or blocks) and concrete floors can allow water through the material and through cracks (where basement walls meet the basement floor is a big location).
the walls may have a surrounding of crushed rock or sand, the floor may be a slab on crushed rock. water flows into this drainage space and then into the sump pump pit and then is pumped out, this prevents pressure on the walls which could crack it.