Sump pump question.

[Pradeep Krishna]

Hi,

I would like to seek your advice regarding sump pump. This past weekend, we had about 5 inches of rain in Illinois. Today morning, I woke up and found the sump pump running. However, the water was not being discharged at the external outlet. I checked the pit and found the water being churn'd by the submersible pump. I called a local plumber ane he suggested replacing the pump. The pump is only 2 years old. I manually triggered the back-up system (water based) and dischared the water from the sump. However, the main pump did not shut-off.

1) Any advice of what could be the problem ? 2) On average, how long does the pump last ? 2 years ? 3) If I need to replace, any idea how much would it cost ?

Any feedback/ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks .. Pradeep.

[Betsy]

This was happening to me. The sump pump was installed incorrectly. The plumber came back and drilled a hole somewhere. Evidently what was happening is that it was sucking like a straw and couldn't get all the water out because, like a straw closed at one end, the pipe held the water in. Then when the pump turned of the check valve released and all the water flowed back in, so the pump had to run again.

Had this condition not been corrected the pump would have burned out. I am sorry if I didn't describe it better.

[Wade Lippman]

I bought a 13 year old house. The night before going on vacation, I tested the sump pump because they were predicting a major thaw. It didn't work; the original installation didn't drill the hole! Fortunately I knew what was wrong, but it sure was nice to find out that the house hadn't needed a sump pump in 13 years.

The pump doesn't have enough force when starting to push the check valve open; so it just kinda stalls. I don't know if it burns out eventually, or simply does nothing indefinitely. The hole allows it to actually pump some water and come up to speed and develop full power. It is a good feature in a pump that must be run off a generator because the starting current is much lower than other pumps.

[Gary Tait]

The ones I run are around 20 years old. They are GSW column pumps.