"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, I'm from CT and we had about 5-8 inches of rain earlier this week.
I just got back home and everything is well in the basement but I've
been timing the minutes between my sump pump turning on and it was
about 6 minutes earlier today and now it's going off about every 2.5
minutes. It normally doesn't go on at all unless it's raining or just
stopped raining - it hasn't rained here for 2 days but we did have a
massive Noreaster here on the east coast so I guess I'm asking if I
should be alarmed that the time periods between sump evacuations are
increasing rather than decreasing. What could be the reason for that?
I'm a little worried that my 1/2 HP is going to give out tonight while
I sleep due to overexertion.

I have to wonder if some of the water is just now getting down to the lower
levels. Often the frozen ground will keep water near the surface but now
that the weather is warming, some new vein of water may be breaking through.

Also, check the run time. If the pump was cycling on every 6 minutes and
running for two, but now comes on every 2.5 minutes and runs for less than
one minutes, the float switch may not be in the right spot and it is short
cycling. Every motor has a duty cycles that includes so many starts per
hour. Yours is on the high side right now and can cause some strain. .