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#1
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do?
Hi folks,
the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? thanks |
#2
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do?
In article , jd says...
Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? Sounds like it's not pitched correctly. Water shouldn't gather there to form an ice plug. Fix that. Banty |
#3
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do?
On Mar 14, 7:05 am, "jd" wrote:
Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? thanks The difficulty depends on how your discharge is set up. I had a house that had an under slab discharge, didn't know where it to...still don't. Every year in the late winter it would freeze up and it seemed to get worse after my neighbor replaced his driveway with a new one 6" lower than the original. Fortunately when they plumbed the sump system, they added a discharge to the exterior of the house going through the sill. When everything is working right, it's plugged and not used. When the "normal" discharge freezes, uncap and put 2-10 foot pieces of rigid plastic 1-1/4 pipe on it and wait for the ground to thaw. The system worked well for years. Banty is right with his suggestion to fix...but sometimes it isn't worth the gain. DAC |
#4
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do?
On Mar 14, 7:32�am, "DAC" wrote:
On Mar 14, 7:05 am, "jd" wrote: Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried *but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? thanks The difficulty depends on how your discharge is set up. I had a house that had an under slab discharge, didn't know where it to...still don't. *Every year in the late winter it would freeze up and it seemed to get worse after my neighbor replaced his driveway with a new one 6" lower than the original. Fortunately when they plumbed the sump system, they added a discharge to the exterior of the house going through the sill. *When everything is working right, it's plugged and not used. *When the "normal" discharge freezes, uncap and put *2-10 foot pieces of rigid plastic 1-1/4 pipe on it and wait for the ground to thaw. *The system worked well for years. Banty is right with his suggestion to fix...but sometimes it isn't worth the gain. DAC T the output line, run a new line well above elevation of existing line say out wall. when primary line freezes backup line will still provide a outlet for water. |
#5
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do?
On 14 Mar 2007 05:32:56 -0700, "DAC" wrote:
On Mar 14, 7:05 am, "jd" wrote: Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills All of my neighbors who front on the street have sump pump outlets that come out of the curb, I think. That would make them very close to the surface at least near the curb and I don't know if any have ever frozen. My house is different. I don't know if it was a design feature in my case or not, or conceivably a short cut designed to save the builder money?? But my drain pokes out the side of a hill like yours, about 20 feet from the basement. Inside the pipe goes up to the ceiling, then horizontally to the wall and comes out about a foot or 18 inches abve the ground, with a hard plastic pipe that comes out of the house and ends after about 3 or 4 inches. Then there's a 4" black corrugated pipe that comes out of the ground, goes up about a foot, bends and is pretty much stuck on the 3 or 4 inch pipe. (can't come off, without my bending it. Wind and water can't do it.) So it's not that cold in Baltimore, but if it ever did freeze or get clogged or crushed, the water would bypass the pipe and pour on the ground. I guess it would soon find it's way back to the sump in that case, but I could also clamp a temporary hose on the thing at that point. The difficulty depends on how your discharge is set up. I had a house that had an under slab discharge, didn't know where it to...still don't. Every year in the late winter it would freeze up and it seemed to get worse after my neighbor replaced his driveway with a new one 6" lower than the original. I would think that would make your situation a bit better as the water poured out of your dirt into his driveway. Unless it made the cold air closer to the pipe in your ground. ??? Fortunately when they plumbed the sump system, they added a discharge to the exterior of the house going through the sill. When everything is working right, it's plugged and not used. When the "normal" discharge freezes, uncap and put 2-10 foot pieces of rigid plastic 1-1/4 pipe on it and wait for the ground to thaw. The system worked well for years. Banty is right with his suggestion to fix...but sometimes it isn't worth the gain. DAC |
#6
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do? A bit more detail....
The sump pump is i nthe basment, about 5 fett below grade. The drain pipe
comes straight up out of hte sump hole, and goes out a hole inthe foundation wall, still about 3 feet below grade. It runs more or less staright for about 20 feet to open air, with the last 6"or so of pipe exposed. It almsot cetainly has the wrong pitch (as in it pitches back towards the pump instead of towards the open air end), but I cannot tear up the yard to fix it..... It freezes pretty close to the point where it comes out of the ground. As soon as the ground thaws, it works fine... the problem only lasts for a few weeks when the water tabgle rises before the ground thaws.... I've rigged a temporary flex hose that runs out a window, but I;d prefer to see if there is some other permanent way to deal with it (without tearing up the yard) --JD "jd" wrote in message . .. Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? thanks |
#7
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do? A bit more detail....
On Mar 15, 6:02 am, "jd" wrote:
The sump pump is i nthe basment, about 5 fett below grade. The drain pipe comes straight up out of hte sump hole, and goes out a hole inthe foundation wall, still about 3 feet below grade. It runs more or less staright for about 20 feet to open air, with the last 6"or so of pipe exposed. It almsot cetainly has the wrong pitch (as in it pitches back towards the pump instead of towards the open air end), but I cannot tear up the yard to fix it..... It freezes pretty close to the point where it comes out of the ground. As soon as the ground thaws, it works fine... the problem only lasts for a few weeks when the water tabgle rises before the ground thaws.... I've rigged a temporary flex hose that runs out a window, but I;d prefer to see if there is some other permanent way to deal with it (without tearing up the yard) --JD "jd" wrote in message . .. Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Poor installation but you don't have to dig up the entire lenght. Only a few feet at the end back to where it is deep enough not to freeze. Slope the last few feet so it does drain out. Of course if you can't lower the end you are pretty much SOL. Harry K |
#8
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do? A bit more detail....
On Mar 15, 6:02 am, "jd" wrote:
The sump pump is i nthe basment, about 5 fett below grade. The drain pipe comes straight up out of hte sump hole, and goes out a hole inthe foundation wall, still about 3 feet below grade. It runs more or less staright for about 20 feet to open air, with the last 6"or so of pipe exposed. It almsot cetainly has the wrong pitch (as in it pitches back towards the pump instead of towards the open air end), but I cannot tear up the yard to fix it..... It freezes pretty close to the point where it comes out of the ground. As soon as the ground thaws, it works fine... the problem only lasts for a few weeks when the water tabgle rises before the ground thaws.... I've rigged a temporary flex hose that runs out a window, but I;d prefer to see if there is some other permanent way to deal with it (without tearing up the yard) --JD "jd" wrote in message . .. Hi folks, the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills ide into open air. every year, it gets an ice plug in it, so the sump pump can't pump.... The water levels start rising before the ground thaws, so the basement always gets water in it i nthe spring. As son as the pump pipe thaws, it can pump out the water, so everything is OK.. any ideas on how to keep the drain pipe from freezing? thanks- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Ooops. Just had a brain flash. Just abandon the current hose, relay one much closer to the surface being sure it slopes down. As long as it will drain out reasonably fast it doesn't have to be below frost line. Harry K |
#9
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do? A bit more detail....
In article .com, "Harry K" wrote:
Poor installation but you don't have to dig up the entire lenght. Only a few feet at the end back to where it is deep enough not to freeze. Slope the last few feet so it does drain out. Of course if you can't lower the end you are pretty much SOL. Not at all. Even if he can't lower the discharge end at all, he can still *raise* some other part of the run. Of course, that might require digging up and reinstalling the entire run, but at least it would get him a proper downward slope to the discharge. -- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com) It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again. |
#10
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sump pump drain hose frozen.. what to do? A bit more detail....
On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:02:57 -0400, "jd" wrote:
The sump pump is i nthe basment, about 5 fett below grade. The drain pipe comes straight up out of hte sump hole, and goes out a hole inthe foundation wall, still about 3 feet below grade. It runs more or less staright for about 20 feet to open air, with the last 6"or so of pipe exposed. It almsot cetainly has the wrong pitch (as in it pitches back towards the pump instead of towards the open air end), but I cannot tear up the yard to fix it..... It freezes pretty close to the point where it comes out of the ground. Guys, can't he clamp a hose on to the pipe**, and run the hose down to below the level of the sump pump, the start of the hose, so that it will siphon the water out after the pump stops running. I think a siphon works better the lower the outlet is. There's probably a known relationship between the amount of water and the maximum diameter for which a siphon will work, but I don't know what that is. **Make sure no air gets in where the hose is connected to the pipe, or the siphone won't work at all I"m not sure this will work, but it's easy to try, and find out. Perhaps a little freezes each time the pump runs, and eventually layer over layer fills and clogs the pipe?? soon as the ground thaws, it works fine... the problem only lasts for a few weeks when the water tabgle rises before the ground thaws.... I've rigged a temporary flex hose that runs out a window, but I;d prefer to see if there is some other permanent way to deal with it (without tearing up the yard) |
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