Sounds like you bought my old house! The pipe on my old house that almost
always had some type of discharge into sump was from a perimeter french
drain system. There was a lot of water that would accumulate in a swale next
to the house (About 10' from foundation) and when it became heavily
saturated it would seep into the ground under the crawlspace, into the
french drain and into the sump where the pump would continue it on its way
to the street.

Its probably no use in tracing the pipe. I would check to make sure your
downspouts extend as far from the house as feasible, make sure your ground
slopes away from you house an not towards it and that you have no low spots
with standing water in them within 15' of your house.

All of this may not keep the water from coming into the sump. You must
ensure your pump doesn't fail or you will end up with a flooded basement.
You may want to consider a battery backup and having a second pump available
as a standby (Because of course Home Depot WILL be closed when you pump
dies). I know, it happened to me.

"R Kannan" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I noticed that the sump pump in my house seems to be running every 1.5 hrs
even when there is no rain. When I checked the sump, I found that there
seemed to be some flow into the sump from one of the two pipes draining
into it. How can I find out where the water is getting drained from?

Any help is appreciated.