On Sun, 11 Jan 2015 16:31:32 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

On Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 6:15:10 PM UTC-6, micky wrote:

If raising the water level doesn't fix it, I'll ask you again.

Makes no sense to me. Raising the water level in the sump won't help unless it is raised above the level of the French drain-

Yes, that's it.

-in which case the water will simply accumulate in the French drain.

The water table outside most of the time is no more than an inch or two
above the bottom of the the drain pipe where it stops at the edge of the
the sump, a few inches below the basement floor. . So once the water in
the sump gets that high, it doesn't get any higher, except while and for
a while after it's raining.

If "x" gallons per day go into the sump, "x" have to be pumped out, whether the maximum level in the sump is 20" or 24".

But x is zero, if the sump level is set high enough, and therefore the
pump doesn't run.

For confirmation, please see HRHofmann's post

When I bought the house, the seller told me something about periodically
adding something to the sump water so it woudlnt' smell bad. Maybe it's
my nose, but I've never added anything and it's never smelled bad.
Maybe he heard this somewhere and it applies somewhere else, but it
rains in Baltimore all year round and frequently, most years, so that
changes the water in the sump. .

If the water next door is pumped out to the sidewalk while it's already
raining, it's barely noticeable.