(numbers very rough. I didn't have a tape measure...)
We've got a typical sump pit, more or less two feet in diameter and three feet deep. The standard corrugated plastic deal that kind of looks like an upside down garbage can.
There's a 3/4 or so horsepower (HP) submersible cast iron pump sitting at the bottom with a float switch that has more or less six inches of travel.
Earlier tonight the switch stayed "closed" (that is, "on") despite there being no water flowing. Fortunately I heard it before any damage to the pump.
I got to it, moved the float up and down a couple of dozen times to free it, and things are ok for now. But it got me thinking:
a: any suggestions for lubricant that would reduce the chances of this happening again?
b: and... that 3/4 HP is way more than needed most of the time. Even in the worst of rains we could probably manage with less than half that, and more typically it's a 10 seconds on, two minutes off, kind of deal.
So... I was wondering if there's an automatic variable output sump pump out there that anyone's heard of.
The way I envision it is that if the water is six inches off the bottom, the pump would run at 0.1 HP. At ten inches it would ramp up to 0.5. At 24 inches it would switch to the full 1 HP output.
(Numbers for illustration).
So yeah, it would need multiple sensors or a funky float arrangement or something.
I can visualize lots of ways of designing something like this, but I was wondering if such a beast was available off the shelf.
Thanks for any suggestions.
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