Sump pump question

[Sudy Nim]

Thank you all for taking time to post your replies I learned a lot. I have two sump pumps one is connected to the drain tile the other to a sump hole that is use to remove the discharge of wash water from the basement wash tub, it came that way with the house. The pumps are both located in heated areas inside the house. The discharge line all 1½ inch pipe about 100 feet long and down hill, connected through an in ground, outside "Y" from the two pumps. The winter here can get to freezing or below but I have not had any problems with freezing. What I do experience is one pump turns on and when it quits I hear water running which I guess is the water in the line inside the house flowing back into the sump hole or holes. But I can't understand how it could get through the check valves, which should be closed. Thinking it might be cause by suction, I added a standpipe about 3 foot high inside the house to see if that would help but it didn't. Both pumps have new operating check valves about 5 feet above the bottom of the sump hole. The vertical length of discharge pipe from the bottom of the pit is about 6 feet. One pump needs to be replaced and I just did not know how many check valves to use or if the valve was really needed. From what I read here, I guess that it is the water below the check valve that I hear so I suppose a valve at the pedestal would be correct for my installation?

[Todd H.]

Hrmm...

Check valves do go bad over time. If you see the pit substantially refilling after operation, or hear water flowing in the piping on the discharge side of the valve, you'll want to replace it.

Good.

One per pump, somewhere indoors, typically 2 or 3 feet above the sump cover.

-- Todd H.

[Harry K]

My set up is pretty similar. One pump, check valve jsut above pump, pipe up to ceiling - 30 ft run across basement with a slight down slope, verticle down to exit the basement and 75 ft to the outlet - all

1 1/4". Yes, I can hear water running after the pump shuts off but it is the pipe emptying, nothing running back into the pit. Remember that you have a -long- run of pipe that can only empty by air entering and that air has to come in the outlet end unless you have some type of vacuum breaker installed above the check valve. Not really needed IMO unless you have a poor slope to the pipe.

Harry K

[Sudy Nim]

Thank you Todd H, Harry K and all. Appreciate your taking the time to reply and for your most helpful information, Sudy Nim.

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

Harry First be advised that my father was a plumber and out of pure orneriness I did not follow him into that craft. What I don't know about plumbing would be almost everything there is to know about it.

My question is wouldn't having a vent allow the drain line to empty far more quickly and quietly? Any time my Dad was looking into a drain problem he would listen first. He seemed to believe that noisy drains always had a vent problem.

[Sudy Nim]

Sorry about that, I did not make myself clear, I meant the discharge side not the suction side. What I tried to say was a check valve on the discharge pipe but at the base of the pump.

The new Flotec pump I just purchased states, install check valve to prevent flow backwards through pump after pump shuts off. But it does not say or diagram exactly where.

It also says, Flotec valve part #xxx is equipped with an air bleed hole to prevent air locks. If using a valve without air bleed hole, drill 1/8" hole in discharge pipe just above pump body but below the check valve.

From that I would assume they mean low in the pit, as it would otherwise send a stream of water out of the pipe onto the floor when pumping if the check valve were above the pit?

[Todd H.]

Anywhere up out of the water. Most I've seen tend to be above the floor by about 2-3 feet for practical reasons of allowing you to bring the sump cover lid up without disassembling the pipes.

Correct. Bonus points if you drill the hole at a slight downward angle.

[Steve Barker]

All this rhetoric about the check valve placement. JUST SCREW THEM INTO THE PUMP. There's no reason to have them out of the water. I've got one check valve that's been through 5 pumps in the last 23 years. Still works fine.