On 12/25/2015 8:44 AM, GeoEngineering wrote:
replying to Don Y , GeoEngineering wrote:
blockedofcourse wrote:

Do you check their *efficacy*? Or, just "that they work" (make noise and
appear to move water)? Impellers often get "gunked up" over time so the
motor can be running (or trying to) but no/little water is moving.

Efficiency.

No, efficacy:
the ability to produce a desired or intended result.

Efficiency determines how *well* it produces that result (in units
of watts per gallon moved, gallons per minute, etc.)

the ratio of the useful work performed by a machine or in a process
to the total energy expended or heat taken in.

I would venture a guess and say that the average home owner
would not be able to gage a pump's efficiency beyond the bigger the
efficiency number the better it is.

You typically don't care how "efficient" it is -- as long as it
can meet your expected "water movement" needs and do so without
consuming massive quantities of electricity in the process.
Hard to imagine a unit sold that would fail in obvious ways
(assuming you read the rating plate prior to purchase).

OTOH, it is relatively easy to encounter one that has become
plugged with debris from use and is no longer EFFECTIVE.

And even if I had the background to be
able make sense of how much fluid is being moved, in comparison to the
amount of electricity that is being expended, what would I do with this ?
If I chose a pump which was rated at a higher efficiency, above a pump
rated at a lower efficiency,,, what am I really choosing? Because what I
am really concerned with is the flow rate of the pump, not how little
electricity it is using at a given flow rate. If I found an aquarium pump
that had a 100 percent efficiency but it only moved a tea cup of water a
minute,, what use is that? For most of us, our electricity is supplied at
whatever rate we use it, of course, within a given range. And how would I
really be able to compare my "gunked up" pump flow rate, to the "un-gunked
up" flow rate? What home owner would be able to place a flow meter on the
pump output, or even put a current meter on the electric line feeding the
pump,,, much less, do this "before" and "after", and be able to make a
judgement based on the pumps efficiency which excluded all the other
factors that have a bearing on the efficiency? Making a decision that,
"my pump isn't doing enough" , would be as far as we need to go to decide
we need a better pump, whether that means a bigger pump, or a higher flow
rate, or both. When I hear that the pump is running, and I can see the
water level in the sump going down, then it's working. My pump is
hard-piped into the sump, so even picking it up to visually check the
impeller would be an issue,, not to mention, the amount of time to remove,
and then re-install it would be way longer than the amount of time it
takes for the sump to fill up. I'd be knee deep in no time. It's true
that, eventually we need to replace the pump. Sometimes there is "gunk"
that clogs things up,, but it's not like "gunk" only adheres to impellers.
If some type of material is building up,, it's probably building up all
throughout the system, pipes, pump, and sump.

Your problem lies in not understanding my choice of words: efficacy.
Go back and reread what I wrote. Then, realize how much of what
*you* wrote doesn't belong as a reply to my comment. :

The problem I have with the answers that get posted on these forums is
that the answers are being posted in a vacuum of not enough details
surrounding the original questions. It's easy to say, that the proper way
to get rid of the water is to pipe it across the front lawn and into the
sewer. But these very specific answers don't address the varied and
sometimes complicated situations that present themselves. Things like, the

And, who's responsibility is it to provide that level of detail?
Should folks spend many posts trying to tease out every little
detail from the OP's prior to offering a suggested remedy?
Ever notice how INFREQUENTLY the OP's don't rejoin the conversation
to say what they've done and what the results may have been?

house is 60 years old, and whatever they did with water back then, may be
different than what we should do now,,,, and some basements are dugout
after the house was built, so having the proper lines isn't always an

And code may not allow water to be routed "as desired"; tying in to a
sanitary sewer *or* storm sewer may be prohibited, locally. Or,
those connections may require check valves, etc.

Here, water falling on your property is *your* problem. When your
lot is graded, *you* have to ensure the water -- including any potential
runoff -- is handled appropriately. You will often encounter
"developments" that have set aside significant portions of real
estate (as in, "why didn't they put yet another house on that
seemingly empty lot?") as catchment basins to handle the "overflow"
from the typical downpours we get during Monsoon.

[We have very few "storm sewers" so runoff runs down the STREET.
This poses a hazard to drivers who are frequently swept away
by this volume of water -- ~6 inches to float a car...]

option. Not to mention, the cost of doing the exact right thing at any
given time,, not all of us have an unlimited supply of money to address a
problem with the latest technology nor the with expert advice. Sometimes a

Lack of funds isn't a defense against failure to comply with Code.

home owner is doing the best they can with what they have to work with,
and the fact that they listed the flow rate of their pump incorrectly,,
and then he gets slammed because he doesn't realize that the unrealistic
flow rate looks unusual to some who have experience and see immediately
that the flow rate is way too big.
In the same way that water powered pumps are described as the end all and
be all of pump backups, none one mentions that if you live in an area
that's been around for say,, hundreds of years,, and the water systems
though out the area regularly has breaks that cause water outages that
last for days and days,, well then, water powered pumps are of little
value. As opposed to the battery backups that,, use a car battery, and
even if the battery died, I could swap it out in my car for a recharge
while the car battery is running the battery backup pump.

The short answer to your rant: if you want a customized answer for
your particular circumstances, local regulatory requirements, etc.
then you ask/hire a plumber.

The advice you receive via USENET (or any other similar "forum") is
worth EXACTLY what you paid for it!