During and shortly after a cloudburst, water could be heard running into the sump, but it didn't trigger the pump. Does this water just sit there and stagnate until the pump is finally triggered by the next storm, or does it drain? Thanks, Jack
If it drained, you probably wouldn't need the pump. It sits.
If it drains in when the ground is saturated, it drains out when the ground drys out. Duh.
Yea. Of course you could pour some more water into the sump until the pump kicks in. Frankly at my old home (built on the highest spot in the development (that's why I picked it) a couple of times a year I would put the hose in there to make it cycle a few time to clean it out and make sure everything was working.
You seem to say that the sump is essentially water-tight at the bottom without any drainage feature. Damn. If I attempted to move the batteries off the plastic lid and remove the lid, sure as hell I'd disrupt the cables/wires and screw up the works.
Looks like we'll have to live with stagnated water and its accompanying buggies, germies, and whatever other critters will develop.
Jack
Mine does what toller said. When it rains, it usually gets some water in the sump, but not enough to trip the float switch. I sometimes trip it manually to make sure the pump works. After things dry out, the sump drains/dries out. We had a boat load of rain on Wednesday. The sump is dry now. I can't say yours will do the same.
Water drains downhill into the sump. It doesn't drain uphill out of the sump, no matter how dry the ground gets. Duh.
The water will sit there. You could either trip it manually with a pot full of water, or you could put an ounce or two of bleach in there to sterilize the water. The former option is probably preferred for a lot of reasons - not the least of which is making sure the pump will work when you need it.
When the thing was installed, there were no instructions. Nothing was mentioned about bleach or "manual tripping," or checking the batteries for water.
I wonder how little old ladies who live alone maintain their sump pump systems.
Dood!
Little old ladies do shit you *just don't want to know about*.
After a moderate rain my sump ends up half full. Two days later it is bone dry. Please don't tell me it evaporated because the water in an unemptied bucket was still there two weeks later. Not all sumps are closed off from the earth around them. Many will self drain as the ground dries out and the water table drops.
-- Tom H
Jack,
This was an issue after I installed my sump pump (without drain tiles) last fall. The water inlet holes in the plastic sump basin were maybe 12 " from the bottom. The pump kicked out when the water in the basin was about 2" hi. So after pumping, I would have 2" to 12" of residual water in the basin.
I didn't want the residual water around, so I drilled a small hole in the *bottom* of the basin, allowing the residual water to flow out of the basin when the water table receded. Haven't had any problems since.
Re your concerns about battery backup, did anyone mention the possibility of a small gas generator? Wouldn't work if you weren't around to start/connect it, but it *could* be valuable if you had a long power outage ...
Cheers, Puddin'
****************************************************** *** Puddin' Man PuddingDotMan at GmailDotCom *** ******************************************************;
Problem is: I'm as mechanically-inclined as a walnut (apologies to any walnuts tuning in).
Long power outages are commonplace. Worse now than it has ever been in my long lifetime. We're contemplating a propane-fired whole house generator hooked up to the electric panel, and with a service contract that features periodic maintenance.
Thanks, Jack
All I had to do was mount a 1/4" drill bit on a cordless drill, clear stuff out of the way, remove the lid on the sump basin, get down on my tummy, and drill away (1 hole). Took less than 5 min. Perhaps you have a son or friend that stops by occasionally?
Never heard of such (but that doesn't mean much). I trust you'll be *very* *careful* in evaluating the rig/contract. Perhaps you've already posted a query on alt.home.repair ...
Cheers, Puddin'
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