On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:22:56 -0700, lagman
wrote:

All,

I just moved to the midwest from Texas, into a house with a basement.
The sump pump runs every 15-20 minutes when dry, and every few minutes
when raining (The previous owner installed a drain tile in the front
yard that empties into the sump, and the area I live in has a high
water table). The previous owner claimed that the pump ran even more
frequently before the tile was installed. The pump empties into a
city owned french drain. It has a backup battery powered pump that I
have tested and works fine. Since basements are new to me, I have a
few questions:

I would hold down the float, or the float switch arm, or unplug the
sump pump, and see how high the water rises when there is nothing to
stop it. Maybe it will only be an inch or two. If that is the case,
you can readjust the float switch an inch or two higher, and then the
pump won't run at all when the water level is the same as it is now.

My next door neigbhor's pump used to run a lot, and by raising the
float one inch, over the course of a month, it was cut in half

HOwever, the water might rise above the top of the sump so be
preparted to turn the pump on before that happens.

With the amount of use this pump is getting, what is its life
expectancy?

I think still a long time.

Are there any warning signs I can look for that will tell
me its time to get a new pump (other than a flooded basement)?

If it is the bearings that will fail first, I guess you could put your
fingers on the top center to see if they are warm, or hot, after
running for a while. You could listen to the sound the motor makes,
but I personally have no idea if these are the things that will
change, or if you will be able to notice them, or how long it takes to
go from just fine to not working at all.

My pump doesn't run much, but I'm on only the second pump in 28 years,
and the first one only wore out because it was a pedestal pump with a
steel or iron pipe holding up the motor. The pipe rusted through at
the water level. On the new pump, that part is plastic and I figure
that part will never wear out. I guess some day the motor will fail.

How much electricity do these things use? Would it be worth looking
for a more energy efficient solution?

Do you think it will run this often during the winter (I am in Iowa)?
Will the pump be able to keep up when the snow melts in the spring?

Yes. IN 28 years, my pump has only been not able to keep up once
following very heavy rains and while it was still raining.

If the worst were to happen and the pump and backup pump were to fail,
there is a drain in the basement located about 6 feet from the pump.
I checked to see if it empties into the sump crock and it does not, so
I assume it empties into the sewer. Would all the water just go down
the drain?

Maybe. You might want to have something ready to channel the water
from the sump to the drain. Sandbags? Two rolls of carpet, one for
each side? Maybe just two pieces of foam, like the round foam people
stuff in cracks, only an inch high. I doubt the water level will
exceed an inch. I wish I had a drain like that.

Put a garden hose on the basement sink and run it to the drain, and
put the water on moderate and see how much the drain will handle.
Then increase the water to as high as it will go, and maybe the drain
will handle that too.

Until you're convinced your safe, you may want to put things on
palletees or something in the basement.

But as upset I was after my first mini-flood, I have had 10 more since
hten, never more than a quarter inch, and really all that gets ruined
are the boxes I put things in. And that only matters when the boxes
are special, like they have the name of the thing and a picture on the
outside, or when they are of a special size or shape.

I don't keep silk sweaters in a box on the basment floor. I keep a
box of transformers, one of motors, one of power supplies, several
boxes of scrap wood, and all that stuff dries out fine. But I'm tired
of looking for new boxes.

Thanks,
Dan

If you think flooding is still near, you might want to get a Basepump
(find it with google) or a battery powered backup electric pump. Each
about 300 dollars iirc.