On Dec 21, 9:25*am, "Chris (SilverUnicorn)"
wrote:
On Dec 21, 9:07*am, wrote:
On Dec 21, 2:36*am, mm wrote:
On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:34:36 -0800 (PST), "Chris (SilverUnicorn)"
wrote:
Well it's at it again. We got a new sump pump and now it's doing the
same thing the old one was doing.
The water level in the pit is low, but high enough to trip the pump.
That's fine the pump starts, and pumps out some wayer ( needs to go 7'
vertical than out the discharge).
Problem is, that 7 feet is enough to empty the pit enough so the pump
shuts off. I can only assume the check valves don't work, because the
pit fills up enough again to restart the pump.
My sump raises the water also 7 feet or maybe over 8, and I don't have
a check valve but when the water falls back, it only raises the sump
level 2 or 3 inches. *
Maybe you have another source of water. *How fast is other water
pouring into your sump? *When the water table outside is higher than
your sump entry pipes, there is in practice an unlimited supply of
water. *The higher the water table the faster it enters.
Maybe if you raised the float level there would be fewer periods when
the pump would run. *
This happens every 2
minutes or less.
I don't have a check valve and have never had one. *The pump turns off
when there are two inches in the sump, and when the pump turns off and
the pipe water falls back, it rises to 4 or 5 inches
Five inches is a far cry from the height needed to start the pump
again, which is about 12 inches, and that is still 3 inches from the
top.)
If my water level rose 7 inches in 2 minutes, it wouldn't take much
longer to rise 10 inches.
(I think these numbers are right. I'll check if you want.)
I would think if your check valve were backwards, there wouldn't be
much water coming out. *Can you check outside the house if and how
much the sump pump is discharging?
It is just recycling the same water over and over. The electric
company will love me 
Any ideas on how to fix this? Thsi is our THIRS check valve. I can not
imagine these are designed so poorly.
I put a check valve on my basement sink drain, but it doesn't work. *I
tried hard to keep lint from the washing machine from getting in but
maybe that ruined it.
The checl valves are made by Flotec. The pump is a Rigid brand that
was purchased at Hiome Depot about a year ago.
Chris- Hide quoted text -
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I would add, how big is the sump pump basin? * If it only holds two
gallons, of course the pump is going to shut off after only a matter
of seconds. * If it's at least average size, then you will have enough
water for it to run for a decent cycle. * If it has no bottom, you can
also dig it deeper and then place a few inchs of washed gravel or
large crushed stone in the bottom. * *Don't be afraid that is going to
bring more water in. *Water will only seek it's natural level. *Also,
so pumps have adjustments on the float which can change the on/off
points.
And how much water actually gets discharged outside now with each
cycle? *With 3 check valves, it seems clear that the check valve
itself is not the problem.- Hide quoted text -
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Thank you for all the replies.
The system we have is this:
The RIGID pump is 1/3 HP, and is the main pump. There is also a backup
pump, a Basement Watchdog. These are plumbed inline. Here is a really
crappy picture of the setup.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/...9b75d367_b.jpg
In that picture, the discharge for the Rigid pump is on the right, the
basement watchdog on the left.
At this point I am not convinced all is hooked up correctly though.
When the pump stops, there is a clunk, which I can oly assume is the
water closing the sump pump.
Each of the 2 pumps has it's own check valve, and they are directly at
the pump discharge.
Thanks for all the replies. Maybe I should add some gravel or rocks to
the bottom of the pit and raise the pumps themselves. These were
installed by a contractor, and a competent one at that 
The basement watchdog pump worked very oddly when we got alot of
water, som I am not sure if that was a worthwhile investment. It is
currently unhooked because it alreasy needs a new battery (1 year
old).
Chris- Hide quoted text -
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I don;t understand this statement of the problem:
"Problem is, that 7 feet is enough to empty the pit enough so the
pump
shuts off. "
That would seem to mean that you are saying that on each cycle, the
pump only pumps enough water to fill 7 feet of pipe, which isn't much
water at all. It's a funny way of expressing the problem and
measuring. If that is actually true, then definitely something is
wrong and the check valve is not the main problem. A faulty check
valve will allow water to come back in, but it can't keep a pump from
first completing a full pump cycle. Either the float is set with
the on/off too close together, or the volume of water in the sump pit
is too small. The bigger the sump pit, the longer the cycle will be,
which is better for pump longevity, energy usage, etc. With a faulty
check valve in an otherwise correct system, you would still have
gallons of water actually ejected outside, but then the remaining
water in the pipe flows back in.
What happens outside at the discharge? How much water is coming
out? With lots of water, it could be perfectly normal for a sump
pump to come on every two minutes. The real issue is how much water
is it actually discharging