Puckdropper wrote:
"Bob F" wrote in
:

Puckdropper wrote:
I've done some Google searching, checked the archives of this group
for relavent recent discussion, and have thus far come up with
nothing useful.

We have a water softener and dehumidifier that drain in to the sump
pump. The sump pump output pipe froze, causing the discharge from
the softener regeneration to back up into the basement. I'm
looking for a high water alarm that can cut the power to these
devices in case something happens again.

Does anyone know of such a thing?

Since it has plenty of pressure behind it, why not plumb the softener
directly out with its own downsloaping drain? Make sure that any pipe
exposed to freezing temps is as short as possible and flows only
downward to the outlet, and is well insulated.



The output froze up outside, where a length of PVC takes the water out
away from the house, and for whatever reason a lengthy flexible hose
extends the output well in to the yard. The flexible hose froze up
and the ice dammed the PVC pipe.

The idea about plumbing the softener directly out is a good one, but
in the case the same thing would have happened.

You really need a continuously downslopeing drain, so that all the water drains
out after the flow, before the pipe has a chance to freeze up. As long as there
is very little ice in the pipe, the next water flow should quickly melt it and
the pipe should not plug up. Non-metal pipe should help (low thermal mass),
insulation should help (more time to drain before it freezes). Avoid corrugated
pipe that will hold water, and any up slope along the way.