On 6/15/2011 11:22 PM, Tony wrote:
A little background...

I bought my house with a full finished basement in 2004. A sump pump is located in the boiler room
and is there for the toilet, sink and shower in the basement bathroom We never used that bathroom,
except for a few months back in 2008 when we were remodeling the main floor bathroom. It always
worked fine and would kick on when we showered. I havent used it since. A while back, I wanted to
hear it work so I ran the sink, shower, flushed a few times and it never went on. I thought that
maybe the level was so low from non use that it didnt fill high enough to turn itself on.

I am now selling my house and an engineer was here today and told me the sump pump does not work.
The pump has two wires coming from the big round base. It was plugged into the wall by one of the
plugs, and the other plug was connected to the back of that plug so that it only used one outlet.
After he left, I decided to put each plug into its own outlet and it went on. I heard the pump and
the water. The problem is that it never stops, even after 5 hours. I hear a loud hum coming from the
ground and it sounds like a washer machine with water being swished around. Does anyone have any
idea what it is doing? I know absolutely nothing about these things. Thanks.

Here is a link to a picture in case that helps:

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...11783/pump.jpg


Tony


Since you haven't used the toilet, there won't be anything but water in
the pit, along with wires and pipes. The larger PVC pipe will connect to
the pump at the bottom of the pit. The smaller PVC pipe just goes below
the cover. It is a fresh air vent. This allows air to flow into the pit,
as the pump pulls the water out, without causing a vacuum.