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I have a backup generator in place of an outage ran on natural gas. I would highly recommend one cost to install and everything was around 5-6k.
That only covers half of it, you would still want a secondary pump in case the primary one fails. In your case you do not really need battery backup and could simply install two pumps or keep a spare on the shelf.
If you are on piped water they have backups that will operate off of water pressure which is pretty much 100% fail safe in all situations other than the pump mechanically failing. The only issue is they don't work very fast.
That only covers half of it, you would still want a secondary pump in case the primary one fails. In your case you do not really need battery backup and could simply install two pumps or keep a spare on the shelf.
If you are on piped water they have backups that will operate off of water pressure which is pretty much 100% fail safe in all situations other than the pump mechanically failing. The only issue is they don't work very fast.
I need too look at it, I had a plumber come out and check it out and he was like, this is way overkill. The previous owners installed a heavy duty like commercial grade sewage pump for my sump pump. He said there is zero concern of that going in any near futures, then its pumped out into French drains like 300 feet away from foundation down a hill into neighbors yard lol. Sucks for him. It ends on my property by a few feet, but since the ground goes low grade, I can tell it floods him out, but its been there years.
I dont really know much about it, just that they dropped 100k in this house renovating it. They even had my neighbors piping French drained out so there wouldn't be as much runoff under my house. Only thing I did was install one of those quiet valves on the sump line to get rid of the hammer jack noise when it actually runs which isn't very often.
I'm installing them using a check valve at each pump outlet with a wye connecting them together. I was concerned that my system uses DWV fittings but I only have about 9 feet of rise, they appear to be solid plastic and I've tried to break the things with vice grips and they are tough, and the weak spot in the system isn't these DWV fittings anyways, which should be able to easily handle the 5PSI of pressure a typical sump pump will put out even though they "aren't pressure rated" , it's the rubber flexible fittings as the clamps can rust over time and come loose. For that reason I recommend upgrading the clamps. The best bang for the buck clamps I've found so far are these, made by breeze in all 316 stainless steel with a quadra lock system. You can get more expensive ABA clamps or T clamps but they're not really needed. I recommend doubling up on the clamps on any flexible fitting that might be submerged in water. Link to product:
Keep in mind that if you're using any sort of flexible fitting or DWV fittings, you don't want to let your sump line ice up.. the back pressure will likely cause a fitting to burst at a weak point, likely a flexible fitting. Barring that you'd burn up the pump if you had a totally pressure rated system which most people with sump pumps do not. The weak point will always be those black flexible fittings and check valves... though you want to make sure any DWV stuff you use isn't foam core.
Always use primer on any PVC connections and let them cure for 24 hours before subjecting them to moisture.
I have two sump pits in my home, and both with battery backup systems and audible alarms. I also have home generator hookup. Other than testing, my systems never really run. I drain my dehumidifier into one pit, and maybe it cycles once every few weeks to empty what goes in.
For the most part, i'm not too worried about water. I have a third pit (original) that I can drop a pump and garden hose into to help the other two out.
You do not want to try to run a sump pump from an "Uninterruptible Power Supply", that sort of thing only protects against loss of primary power. It won't handle any of the other dozen or so ways that a sump pump can fail including fouled switch, blocked discharge. primary motor failure, clogged intake, etc...
The best sump back systems use a pump that is designed specifically to not interfere with the primary. Many organizations that cannot risk water entering a hospital, data center, or other critical infrastructure use systems that are frankly overkill for typical homes -- https://www.sumppumpsdirect.com/SUMP...ump/p6672.html To an owner of a high end home with things like a fancy home theater, wine cellar, walk-in humidor or other costly basement features that $5000 is money well spent. You should note that the video that shows the installed system carries on with the "redundancy for all elements" -- dual battery, dual discharge, etc...
The sorts of systems that you get from Amazon typically have a weak link that is pretty obvious -- Cheap little "wall wart" type chargers barely can stay in the wall and won't recharge the batteries quickly in the sorts of situations where a storm knocks out power intermittently over an extended period. I recommend considering a more robust charger that will easily support charging of dual batteries -- this particular unit also supports replacement of just the switch and pump, which as others have noted should be done about every five years in systems that actually get used -- https://www.grainger.com/product/PHC...y-Backup-1APP3
The issue with the 'water powered backup sump" is that it is just a siphon and as such will result in spewing at least twice the gallons of costly metered city water into your yard for every gallon of rain & ground water that it siphons out from the sump. That quickly will flood even the most well graded yard during the sort of rain storms which are most likely to result in electricity being knocked out. What's even more of a concern is that the total pumping capacity of these sorts of siphons are not even a 1/10 of good battery powered pump -- in any sort of sustained rain or snow melt situation the pit will be overwhelmed and that defeats the whole purpose! If you still want to explore the options consider how impractical this may be ... https://www.grainger.com/product/ZOE...mp-Pump-12U354
Last edited by chet everett; 08-06-2018 at 04:32 PM..
I had a power outage during a basement flooding rain, and thus went out looking for a battery backup for it. Thje salesman was pushing this system which if I recall was around a grand to back up my sump pump for I believe 8-10 hours during a power failure. So I thought if I was at work (an hour from my house) or on vacation, what was 8-10 hours worth? For me nothing, so at the end of the day I ended up with a 15kw whole house generator with an automatic 200A transfer switch and a 100gal propane tank which can last 5+ days. Well worth the investment, and it's definitely already paid for itself. I'll take full house power over trying to run a sump pump any day.
If you are on piped water they have backups that will operate off of water pressure which is pretty much 100% fail safe in all situations other than the pump mechanically failing. The only issue is they don't work very fast.
So you have one that runs off your city water to pump out basement water? How many gallons does it take to pump out 1 gallon of basement water? and where does the water that runs the pump go? down the drain into the sewer system? What iff the sump is below the level of your sewer line? Given the cost for city water this seems an expensive solution.
I had a power outage during a basement flooding rain, and thus went out looking for a battery backup for it. Thje salesman was pushing this system which if I recall was around a grand to back up my sump pump for I believe 8-10 hours during a power failure. So I thought if I was at work (an hour from my house) or on vacation, what was 8-10 hours worth? For me nothing, so at the end of the day I ended up with a 15kw whole house generator with an automatic 200A transfer switch and a 100gal propane tank which can last 5+ days. Well worth the investment, and it's definitely already paid for itself. I'll take full house power over trying to run a sump pump any day.
The 8-10 hours likely referred to a continuously running pump. With the even the weakest pumps still doing 1,000 gallons per hour you probably wouldn't be in a situation where the pump is running continuously. Basement Watchdog, one of the popular brands, assumes a 10% duty cycle, meaning you could get 80-100 hours out of it.
You have pretty foolproof electrical backup, but do you have a backup pump? If your first pump fails then you're out of luck even with all the electricity in the world.
So you have one that runs off your city water to pump out basement water? How many gallons does it take to pump out 1 gallon of basement water? and where does the water that runs the pump go? down the drain into the sewer system? What iff the sump is below the level of your sewer line? Given the cost for city water this seems an expensive solution.
I'd rather have a one-time only expensive water bill, than a $10,000 basement water damage claim.
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