SUMP PUMP VALVE REQUIREMENT

[DAB IN OHIO]

In my basement I have a sump pump that pumps up about 6 feet to the outside away from the house. That pump does not have a back flow value which has caused me no problems. Any water flowing back has been less than a gallon. During the worst rains the pump operates for 40 sec every 15 minutes.

I just purchsed a Watchdog battery operated backup sump pump that I am getting ready to install. I will be tapping into the existing outflow line which is a 1 1/4\" PVC. QUESTION: I purchased two back flow valves to put in but do I really need to install any?? I am concerned with water standing in the line durning the months that the pump isn't used and also concerned with it freezing during the cold days durning the end of winter and beginning of spring.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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[DA]

I'm also using an electric sump pump without a check valve and never had any problem either. In my case the water head is 8', then it drops vertically 4' on the other side of the wall and then slopes 4'+ more towards the end of the pipe. In my case I think the 4' drop is enough of backflow prevention. It is not a sealed connection on the other side, so I think I'm pretty safe from the water siphoning back in case the end of the pipe ever gets submerged into a freaky high flood waters.

In any case, the amount of water that comes back is slightly more than you estimate. Just by doing math on the size of the pipe, 1-1/4\" pipe holds approx 1.5 gallons of water in 6' length. But if your sump basin is large enough, it won't be a problem. Depending on how your discharge pipes are laid out, freezing may or may not be a problem (in my case all the pipes outside are lower than the highest point, so there is never any water in pipes on the outside) but I think that the valve is not even sealed enough to prevent all that water from seeping back into the basin anyhow, especially when the pump only fires occasionally. Yet it adds resistance to the water. It's also another part to fail or get clogged.

I've never seen the check valve to be REQUIRED. There are some backup prevention requirements for sump pumps operated by the drinking water pressure (read about these, never saw them) but they're talking about the drinking water backup for obvious reasons, not the sump pump discharge backup.

If anyone else knows a very good reason to have the check valve installed, I'd love to hear that as well. Just like yourself, I have a valve sitting on a shelf, it's just never been installed.

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[DAB IN OHIO]

DA, thanks for your reply. Do you have a battery back up systme?

DAB in Ohio

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[DA]

Well, I do have a battery backup but it protects a secondary, smaller pump that's set about 8\" higher and has its own switch. The secondary pump has no check valve either, at least I can't see it on the outside (although it can be built into the pump, I think), it makes me wonder how this system even works because they both discharge into the same pipe and at least one pump would have to have a valve else all the water would just come right back through the other pump. Maybe when the main pump gets going, the water is just flying straight past the \"T\" and most of it reaches the discharge while only some of it returns through the secondary pump. I'll have to revisit all this, now I'm glad I took part in this discussion else I would not have looked more carefully. Come to think of it, it does take a rather long time for the main pump to empty the basin, maybe this secondary pump business is just messing things up.

Since I have not set this system up (came with the house), I think the reasoning was that the 3/4hp secondary pump would last twice as long on the battery backup as the 1.5Hp main pump and it won't fire for a few more minutes (until the basin fills 8 more inches) in hopes that power will come back up sooner. In fairness, all blackouts have been very temporary so far - nothing longer than a few minutes. What was the reason behind not using check valves despite there being two pumps - that I can't tell and I'm now thoroughly confused about the matter myself :)

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