I have a sump pump to keep water out of my basement. It works great. Except when it doesn’t.
We’ve had major, major storms in CA this year, and my sump pump has been working like a charm. But I went out of town for 2 days, and found the GFI tripped when I returned and about 4" of water in my basement. Ugh. Seems like there should be some simple system you can install to be alerted when the GFI is tripped. Or something else?
I’m sure this problem has been solved, so I’m wondering what folks here have done in similar situations. I’m gone a lot on the weekends, but I can easily call a friend to stop by my place and reset the GFI. Or call my electrician for an emergency house call if it’s more serious.
People put in battery backups. Usually one, sometimes even more if you can fit them in your crock.
I actually have a water powered backup which works off the water pressure in the house. So unlike a battery backup it will never run out of power. But it’s not good for a place like CA where water is so expensive, I don’t think.
First of all, get rid of the GFCI in less the location itself requires one. The NEC deliberately removed sump pumps from a GFCI requirement. It must then be on a dedicated, single outlet circuit (no duplex receptacle) that is not readily accessible, assuming it is in the basement.
I forgot to mention… the sump pump is outside, not in the basement. The pump is plugged into an external receptacle. It’s tied into a French Drain system that is meant to keep the water out of the basement in the first place.
For $220, plus $50 a year, there’s got to be a better solution.
Since the OP only lost power to the pump because a GFCI tripped, I’d get rid of the GFCI and call it a day. Now, if you really want to keep the GFCI, the easiest solution, IMO, would be to get a small (annoying to the neighbors) light, that you’ll learn to see every time you drive past/walk past it, light, and plug it into the same outlet. That way if you lose power to that outlet you’ll notice it. I’d guess that the pump has been without power for some time. The other options is to set something up (with another outlet and a relay) that buzzes inside the house, immediately when that outlet loses power, but that gets complicated.
Short answer: get rid of the GFCI and put it in the most watertight/weatherproof case you can find and you should be okay.
That’s a good thought. Physically checking isn’t a problem since I can easily see the discharge into the gutter. When the pump is working, the area around the exit point is always wet. The point is, though, I’m gone a lot on weekends, so I can’t check. I was thinking of just mounting a camera that I can check periodically from my iPhone. But ideally, there would be some sensor that would pro-actively send me a signal rather than having me reactively check.
Do you have a home alarm system already? I have Simplisafe, and they offer a water sensor as an add on for a few bucks that you can install with the rest of the system.
For the record, in my above post, I meant “(not annoying to the neighbors)”.
They do make moisture sensors, some that even contact you in one way or another. They’re typically designed to deal with burst/leaking pipes. I’m not so sure how well they would do outside.
Ideally you wouldn’t be using it all that often, and the time you do you’re glad to pay the water bill!
As far as an alarm to let you know the power had gone off to the device: maybe something that talks to your router. Oddly, with all the IOT stuff going on, I’m not finding all that much via Google. Something like this maybe: https://www.isocketworld.com/en/iSocket-PowerWatch-ISGSML707US/
An audible alarm is obviously not ideal - if you are away from home you won’t hear it - even if you ARE at home you might not hear it inside.
IMO/IME, the trick with any optical/audible alarm is to be on friendly terms with your neighbors and ask them to alert you if the alarm is going off for more than a reasonable amount of time. If you can manage that, the one I mentioned above (that relies on losing power to one outlet, but not the rest of the house) should work fine. It’s trivial to put a big red light (even directed at the neighbors house) set up to turn on when power is lost and ask them to stop over and let you know or call you if it’s on for more than X hours.
Come to think of it, I want to say that some of the battery back up sump pumps might come with some way to alert you when they lose power. Either by wifi or even cellular with the more expensive ones.
But if you can set up a back up pump that runs on water pressure that might be the most elegant solution since (unless you’re on well water) it won’t rely on the neighbors and, more importantly, it won’t rely on the rest of the house having power.
Why do you have your sump pump plugged into a GFCI in the first place? Is you outlet 2 inches off the floor? (I doubt it.) Do you think your basement will potentially flood up to the level of your outlet? If it does you are fucked anyway. Just plug your sump pump into a regular 3-pronged outlet. If the power goes out and the water rises while you are gone - - - the sump will run when the power comes back on again. I am assuming your house isn’t built in a swamp, at the bottom of a gully, or downstream from a dam or reservoir where you can be potentially be hit by massive amounts of water.