I'll likely be flamed for t his, but what occured dto me is to put an
inverted P-trap. Something like:

!--------!
! !
SUMP ! !__________________discharge

So that the outlet pipe goes UP a wasys before going over. Don't know if
that will help. But it makes sense. The other thought, is that if you can
run a pipe way up (fifteen feet or so) you can put a vertical vent. Half
inch or so. That way, you will not get siphon effect drawing the water back
to the sump pump.

OK, flame me now. Your turn.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


wrote in message
...
I have a curtain drain in the yard that runs into a 5 ft deep cement
box with a sump pump in it. The 1.5 PVC pipe that was connected to it
ran about 150ft. to a ditch and did not have a continuous drop, it
went up and down causing a lot of water to run back into the sump pump
box and hold water in the pipe also it made the pump run more often.

I replaced the PVC pipe with 3in. pipe and had a very slight drop to
it as the 150ft. run does not have a lot of drop. I am still getting
water coming back to the box/ sump when it stops again causing the
pump to rum more often than it should. I know for sure my 3in. pipe is
put in much better than the 1.5 pipe but still get close to the same
water running back.

The sump pump has the 1.5 pipe lifting about 5 ft. as it comes out of
the box and about 1 ft. past that is were I changed it over to the 3
in. pipe, could this be part of the problem? It seems the pump has to
run 2 times before I see water coming out the end of the 150ft.run. I
went back and checked the level of the 3in. pipe to make sure it has a
drop going the right way. Part of the run it just level no drop but at
no time is it running back toward the sump pump. I only had about 4 to
5in in drop for the 150ft run, that is why some of the pipe is set to
level so I could come out from under the ground to daylight at the end
of the run. I am thinking now that maybe I should have run the 1.5in
pipe 10 or so more ft. before going to the 3in. pipe to give it more
push. A friend thinks it's just the water causing flow back from the
water hitting it's self and pushing it back to the pump.

I have not use a check valve because it get well below freezing here
and I am thinking that if I put a 3in. check valve at the beginning of
the horizontal 3in. pipe and it's not flow back it will fill the back
part of the pipe and freeze.

Any ideas on why the water is going the wrong way? As I said no place
in the pipe is it running back, the pipe is running with a drop or at
least level, the level part being about half way in the run but the
first and last part of the pipe run are on a drop.

Thanks