Home Improvement Today?

I wouldn’t put a sump pump in without one. This new pump came with two already installed on both the main and battery backup. I hooked the pipe up to the one above the pit. Thought it might be bad so I replaced it. Unplug the main disconnect the backup. Thought I would remove the one I’m having a problem with to see if I was causing some kind of problem with the bottom two. Unplugged the main and forgot about the backup. Had a piece of pipe in the bottom connection and was holding the top when it went off. Anyway put just the straight pipe in and it’s worse.

 

Here's a sump without a check valve installed. The problem comes when you have a large amount of water in the pipes above the pump. Say you have a 10 gallon sump and 10 gallons above the pump in the pipes. The pump runs, pumping the 10 gallons into the pipes, then the water drains back into the pump, rinse and repeat until the pump wears out in short order.

The OP doesn't have a large amount of water in the pipes above the pump. (I'm assuming that it drains away from the house once it goes through the wall) So, some water does drain back and the pump isn't as efficient as it could be, but no real harm is done.

Can you draw a picture of what is installed? I only see one check valve in the system, the clear do-dad above the sump. I'm not like a super expert, and a quick google doesn't find any sump pumps with one, let alone 2 check valves.

 

Sump pumps, ugh. A power outage would result in 1 inch of water in the basement. what a mess. My solution was to cut into the footing drain and bury a big O pipe to the ditch...400 feet or so, with 1 foot drop. Took 3 tries, and a few thousand bucks, but no more wet basement episodes. And less electricity used was handy when we went off grid.

 

This is the pump
Can’t really get a good picture of it in the pit. Or crock as some call it

 

yeah exactly what I'm saying , you want a check valve so the water can't come back into the pump chamber

 

Another reason for the check valve is to stop the pump impeller from spinning off the motor shaft.

When the pump shuts off all the water in the vertical pipe comes back down as described above, this will spin the motor backwards if there isn't a check valve to protect it.

 

OK that helps. There is only the one check valve in the system. What happens to the drain after it exits the wall? Is that the high point in the system or does the pump have to push the water up above that?

 

@jsi I think your right about the suction causing it. I like to try that aav vent but not sure how I would hook it up. If it’s pumping up, where would I put it that the water won’t just go up that pipe? I know it shouldn’t come out that vent but feel like it would obstruct it a little.

 

It actually has two. I can’t find a picture of the back of the box. There is one screwed in at the elbow of each pump. It goes through that wall outside a few feet under ground. Not sure how far it goes but at some point it connects to a 4” pipe that exists at the end of my property.

 

I wouldn't trust the aav on the inside of the home on a pump system, if it were to fail to close you would have both rising and flying water in your basement.

Can you take a photo of the outside plumbing?

 

It’s all under ground except where the pipe comes out. It does go down grade. It’s dark out right now but I can try tomorrow if it helps.

 

^Agreed^

Where to put it, good question. What's on the other side of the wall? Can you access the pipe? I forget the story is this house new to you? Has the system always done this or did something change?

 

House isn’t new and there was a sump when I bought it. Don’t remember it doing this but the pump was small. When I changed it I put a bigger pump in. Then when the basement flooded I put a bigger one that did it but just a little. I added a battery backup and put a check valve on both above the cover then the pipes connected together before exiting the house. That’s when I really noticed it but always thought it was because of the way I had it set up because they both did it. Now I put in the combo all in one and I think because it’s the one check valve instead of two I can notice it more.

 

Well, if there is one for each pump, the 3rd clear one is redundant. But the problem remains that there's no place for air to get into the system except through the pump. This sump isn't part of the sewage system so the vacuum created when the water is pumped out isn't going to drain the P traps or cause a health hazard. You could just live with it.

Using my sump as an example you could create an "enforced" pathway for the water. The water is directed up - over - and then down through a wye. The AAV valve would only ever see air pressure in this scenario, but if it failed . . . It might be worth some peace of mind to get a plumber involved in this one.

 

Bigger pump, there it is.

As was advanced a page or so ago the suction of the water flowing away is almost surely the problem. It wasn't evident before because the smaller pump couldn't fill the 4" pipe as full.

The solution will involve a shovel but not much money. Putting a vent in the line close to the house should fix the problem. The water should choose to go down the 4" pipe rather than climb the vertical vent so it probably doesn't need to be too tall.

 

Yeah makes total sense. I don’t want to put a smaller one in because when my basement flooded years ago the pump was working, just couldn’t keep up with the amount coming in. I’ll live with it for now and when spring comes I’ll look into doing some digging. Thanks RustyGreen and jsi

 

Unless there is a sidewalk or driveway where the pipe exits the foundation it should be an easy and inexpensive job.

 

Damn wetsaw kept freezing up on me today. Got the backsplash done despite that though.




Gonna grout it one night this week.

 

As someone who is trying to update their kitchen as well, you are doing a much nicer job than I am!

More money than I could spend though

 

Perks of being a single guy with more spare time than brains I guess.

Had to finance the bigger things, but with no other debt than the mortgage I was able to justify it. And Ill get it all back and then some when I go to sell.

Also didnt go overkill on the materials. The off the shelf cabinets saved me a ton. Pretty much the entire kitchen is from Home Depot.