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Re: Sump Pumps
Old 04-16-2007, 06:24 PM   #21
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Re: Sump Pumps

Crawl space under my new place. Nothing down there but concrete brick cinderblocks and dirt with big plastic sheets covering the dirt.
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Re: Sump Pumps
Old 04-16-2007, 06:31 PM   #22
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Re: Sump Pumps

I live 10 miles west of Phila and my sump pump has been running since Saturday and it is having a difficult time keeping up with the water. In fact, we also have a portable utility pump running to support the sump pump ---Jeez

We also have a beach house in Cape May NJ and I have no idea what is going on there.
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Re: Sump Pumps
Old 04-16-2007, 07:29 PM   #23
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Re: Sump Pumps

Quote:
Originally Posted by Khan
What is a good backup for a sump pump?

Some sort of battery?
Backup pump powered by household water pressure..........
http://www.do-it-yourself-pumps.com/homeguard.htm

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Re: Sump Pumps
Old 04-16-2007, 08:27 PM   #24
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Re: Sump Pumps

Think very very carefully before purchasing and installing a water-powered backup sump pump. Every one I have seen uses the venturi effect. When the float gets up to the start level, a valve opens, shooting city water through a venturi, and out through the discharge hose. The flow through the venturi creates the suction that pulls up the sump water, and throws it out the discharge hose too. So the discharge water is about 50% sump water and 50% city supply water. This is going to put a lot of water outside!

But that's not the real problem! If the discharge hose gets plugged or frozen, or the check valve in the discharge path gets stuck or whatever, ALL the city water will end up getting dumped into the sump pit! And because the float is up, calling for it to run, it will continue to dump city water into your basement. So not only is it not pumping rain water out, it's filling your basement with city water! And it ain't never gonna stop.

I don't have to worry about basements any more, but when I did, besides the submersible AC operated pump, I used a 12 volt battery powered backup pump. It had a circuit board that recharged the battery when needed. I also modified a set of car jumper cables adding on some 12 gauge wire, so if AC power was out a long while, I could drive a car up near and run the pump off of the car battery. Plan was to let the hood down on a piece of 2x4 to leave a space for cable to exit from underhood. Would run car for a while before it's battery would get too far down.
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Re: Sump Pumps
Old 04-17-2007, 06:37 AM   #25
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Re: Sump Pumps

My house has always had water in the basement, I remember when I was a kid (5 or 6 years old) my granddad putting on his boots to wade through 2 feet of water in the cellar to stoke the coal furnace. It was a creepy feeling looking down there seeing all the water, it was that way every spring until the water table went down. Later when sump pumps were available and didn't cost an arm and a leg my dad set up the system and we've been water free ever since.

Our backup to the sump pump is to have a spare pump and a generator. The generator came in handy yesterday, we were without power from 10am to 11pm last night. Our generator powered our sump as well as two neighbors , my dad had the two neighbors on the other side of him hooked to his. We all make it through the outage with dry cellars. One neighbor across the street had a truck with an outlet and ran that all afternoon hooked to his sump.

It was nice when power was restored.
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Re: Sump Pumps
Old 04-17-2007, 03:30 PM   #26
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Re: Sump Pumps

How much water do you have, and how often is there water needing to be pumped?

The suggestion above of 1 1/2" pvc line seems huge. This is more appropriate for a continuous dewatering effort, or a very large area. Rather than worrying about the volume of water in the line constantly cycling the pump (as alluded to by a previous poster), if you need a line this big, you would want to install a check valve just on the downstream side of the pump. If you do that, you don't have to worry so much about the grade of the discharge either, since it won't matter if the discharge line sits full--it won't drain back into your sump.

Usually, you don't need timers and such--you need a pump with a float switch. Again, this being for intermittant water. This also prevents dry pumping--very hard on the equipment.

I'm talking about a situation where you are not normally below the water table but need a pump to kick on during the relatively infrequent times when there is water collecting.
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