Our sump pump finally shat the bed. The float switch has been bad for a while, but now it trips the GFCI as soon as it's plugged in.

This is my first house so I've never done this before, but it seems pretty straight forward. I can handle the PVC pipe hookups just fine, and I know I need a decently powerful pump because it's located in our basement, and the bottom of the sump is another ~3 feet down, so it's looking at probably 11-12 feet of lift to where the pipe comes out the side of the house. I'm looking at 3/4 to 1 hp models. My questions are more related to pump design and placement.

Some of the pumps in the store have this newfangled electronic microprocessor switch, as opposed to the older style float on a lever arm. Of course the box says the microprocessor switch is better and will be longer lasting, but is that actually true? Anyone have experience with this?

Regarding placement... the sump has a plastic liner around the cylinder, and towards the bottom is a ring of holes to allow water to seep in. There is always "some" water in the bottom, below the level that would normally switch on the pump, but it only takes a small amount of rain for that to rise, and if we get a couple rainy days the water will come up a foot or two in the sump (with the old pump with the bad float switch that I had to manually activate). If I place the new pump at the same depth the old one sits at, I think it's going to be cycling at a pretty high rate. Do I need to play around with how deep I place the pump, or can I just set it all the way down and let it take care if itself?

Another issue was that I don't think there is a check valve in there now, or if there is, it's bad. When the pump shuts off, all the water in 11-12 feet of 1.5" PVC dumps back into the sump. I'm sure that was contributing to the baseline water level and higher cycling rate, so hopefully a working check valve will also help.

I can tell you what I tell the Owning Corning fellers who keep calling and leaving knob danglers soliciting their product...I DON'T HAVE A #$%^#$@#^@#^ BASEMENT! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Hope that helps. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Yes on the check valve, for the reason you guessed. How fast does your sump fill? I'd go with the lowest hp that will keep up with the fill rate.

Time the sump fill, measure the sump l x w x h x 7.5gal/cuft, divide by minutes to fill = gal per min pump rating needed, select next pump size up. Pump gpm is given at a stated feet of head, or the combination of feet of lift plus friction loss in the pipe and fittings stated in feet of head. Unless you have a very convoluted pipe run, figure 2x water lift for the total head required as a rough rule of thumb. If you are close, or worried, let me know and I can calculate the piping head loss from a dimensioned and sized diagram of the piping.

I would buy the std old mech switch type pump. Float height is usually adjustable with sliding rubber washers on the float rod at the pump switch.

x 2 on the check valve.

Eddy, I'm gonna need to look in my little pocket guide and mark that calculation. Handy for up here, esp about the time I sink a well out at the property.

Excluding any pump selection info, can I ask some dumb questions about your lot?

1. Does the lot slope away from the basement in any direction?
2. Do you have room for a subdrain system on your lot?

I am working with a friend right now, both in the design and construction phases of a subdrain system, and with a temporary sump pump placement. We have lots of room and gradient away from their basement for a small subdrain system.

Russell
Geologist at large

The average water table level in the general area is at 9-12ft, so basements are generally a bad idea. My well at the house is only 25 ft deep; get my water up either by hand pump if the power is out, or small jet pump. The foot valve on the end of the pickup tube is the check valve. This is 1" PECpipe in a 2" casing; well was hand-driven.

However, where my lots are, a clay dome comes up. Gravel layer 4ft down; about 12ft thick; 3 ft permafrost layer 25 ft down. Last part is from a neighbor with a 40ft well.

I picked out the lots while the snow was melting a few springs ago, so have lots which drain; this was an old homestead in hay, so relatively level.

If I were putting in a subdrain, say, for a garage for snowmelt, I'd put in a french drain with bullrock, due to the clay and glacier silt drop. Toss some Typar on there to keep the fines from working in.

For my purposes, a 55 gal drum used for target practice a few times works just fine. More fun than drilling!!!

Being in Kali, if that's just graywater or runoff, ask him if he's interested in a reservoir system for using on the yard.

My friend has three wells onsite: two potable, one for irrigation. She has drip irrigation for some of the trees, but the rest is pasture land. The home herd consists of two Nigerian Dwarf goats, a Llama, and one each market sheep and goat.

The previous home owner built a cool 4-car garage with a basement. The Sacramento area has had significant rain the last few months and has charged up perched groundwater all over the place...bleeding road, road cuts, etc., and my friend's basement. When I broke through the slab today, the static water level was about 2" below the top of slab, thereby proving to my friend she had free water floating her slab. My interest in the work is to first help out on a professional-type level, but secondarily to mitigate a mold issue that has persisted for about 1 year. Not healthy for our friend or her children that liked the basement space in the summer months.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Unpleasant discovery, but quite timely from the sounds of it. Mold is a real problem in Alaska's Interior; you don't even close in a post-and-beam crawl space without some kind of vapor barrier up here.

I wonder if some kind of french drain outside the basement might help manage that amount of water; that's a lot of dirtwork tho'. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> Doesn't sound like you've got a lot of rock in the soil.

For my friend's subdrain system, we're going to dig down next to the basement wall with a Case backhoe, install 4" OD perforated pipe and gravel to capture the water, then convey the water out to a drainage swale about 250' feet away. The outlet trench will be excavated with at least a Sumitomo 220 excavator, something along the smaller flavor of excavators. Trench soil backfill will then be compacted to UBC standards. This system, while not large, is not little.

Well I got my stuff squared away. Basically used eddy's info to calculate how many gallons, had to guess at the fill time since I couldn't accurately determine that due to the bad pump, and factored in about 2x plus a little fudge factor for pipe convolution. I wound up buying a 1/2 hp model that will be plenty adequate according to the specs on the box.

It has a piggyback style float switch, enclosed in a float bulb on the end of the electric cord, as opposed to the rod style that activates a switch internal to the pump. The good thing about these is if they go bad they are stupid easy to replace, and they can also be easily bypassed. It also has a greater, what I would call "deadband," since I can't recall a more proper term. Switches on at 15" and off at 7". With those water levels in my sump it won't cycle too often at all. I double-checked that the float isn't obstructed by anything and it's good to go.