On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:58:18 -0400, Meat Plow
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:05:33 -0700, lagman wrote:

All,

I just bought a house with a redundant battery operated sump pump
installed (brand name is "Ace in the Hole"). I decided to test it out
by unplugging the main AC unit. The pump made noise like it was
running but didn't pump any water out. The date on the battery says
it is only 4 months old. I checked the battery water levels and they
were all ok.

More important than either of those for the purpose of debugging is
the voltage of the battery. Should be about 12.6 vdc when not running
and only a little below that when it is.

Why, because a brand new battery can become discharged, and the
charger can break, without lowering the water level. You know that
you should use distilled water to refill the battery, riht.

Any ideas? Does it sound like a bad pump?

It's too early to say. If the voltage were low, it might make some
noise but still not be spinning fast enough to pump.

Maybe something has clogged the input.

Is it a one-piece motor and pump? Maybe it's the motor and not the
pump.

I should mention it has
its own pipe running from the pit to the outside, so maybe the pipe is
plugged?

Maybe.


Don't those things run on AC also?

Only the most expensive ones. Unless you mean the battery charger.

Seems to me if the sump filled while
your AC was on it would need to empty it.