On Sun, 15 Apr 2018 10:50:09 +0100, Peter Hill wrote:

On 09-Apr-18 7:13 PM, Johnny B Good wrote:
On Sunday afternoon, when looking in our basement for some (250mL)
15W-40 engine oil to prep up a 1K2W inverter genset I'd bought from our
local Lidl for 99 quid a couple of hours earlier, I discovered the coal
hole section had become somewhat flooded and threatening to flood the
main part of the basement.

snip

Since I've reached the end of my tether in 'googling' a solution
(source
of a suitable self priming sump pump), I thought I'd prevail upon the
potential source of collective wisdom and experience of this group for
advice.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/051012200/
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/051011800/

I was looking at those last Friday before I decided to take a punt on
their 12 volt 'special' for a mere £20.39 (Clarke MSP12 - 12V Submersible
Transfer Pump) which proved to be adequate for my particular problem.


This one needs initial priming but with a one way "foot valve" to stop
it draining back it doesn't need further priming. Problem is if water is
dirty it can be trapped in foot valve and allow the suction pipe to
drain. Also dirty water may wear the plastic impeller. So the foot valve
also needs a filter.

It was the need for the foot valve and other accessories that made the
12v pump so attractive - practically everything I need for my planned
installation apart from a yard or so's worth of 15mm copper outflow pipe
to direct the water out onto my driveway next to the front door step
almost immediately above my sump standpipe.

https://www.anchorpumps.com/stuart-t...r-centrifugal-
booster-pump-240v

Not at all suitable for pumping out a basement sump. That's intended for
boosting shower water pressure and the like.


Centrifugal pump can not be "self priming". It needs a piston/diaphragm
or helical. Piston/diaphragm pumps will have simple one way delivery
valves and can't pump dirty water.

Proper dirty water self priming is not cheap.
https://www.anglianpumping.com/produ...mono-cms-400v-
water-pump?
gclid=Cj0KCQjw8MvWBRC8ARIsAOFSVBUNqfX5NZAEk8vMJGZ8 v8bUcA_By1f8HvxtXEzcoLoUE8QyicjqOTwaAjJQEALw_wcB

Blimey! You weren't kidding about it not being cheap! That works out at
a smidgen more than 23 times the price I paid for the 12v pump!

I was hoping I could make a start on installing the outflow pipe section
this afternoon but the weather took a turn for the worse by the time I'd
bought myself 5 litres of unleaded to fuel up the inverter genset, dosed
the sump with the required 250ml of 10W-40 oil and set it up for a test
run only to discover it was faulty (possibly due to an overload from the
PF correction inductor I'd forgotten to disconnect from the feed cable
running from the back door down into the basement).

I had my lad help me start the genny (I'm finding it very hard work to
yank on a starter cord these days - mind you, even 15 years ago it was
hard work trying to start a cheap, temperamental two stroke 720W petrol
generator so no great surprise there). As things turned out we found
ourselves having to restart it several times to reset the "Overvolt" trip
before discovering it was tripping out all by itself (no lead plugged
into its singular 13A outlet socket) within a few seconds of each start
up.

The second restart to reset the initial overload from the dozen or so
400VA transformer primaries I'd been using as a PF correction inductor
for the previous 2.8KVA genset (and forgotten to disconnect), provided a
few second's worth of power for the UPS to pass through to the load
before cutting out, never to reset the overvolt alarm thereafter.

Unfortunately, by the time I'd drained the oil and fuel to return it, it
had gone 4 O'clock, Lidl's Sunday closing time. Not only that but the
weather had turned showery making it a little dangerous to be using a
mains voltage electric drill outside in order to probe under the hallway
floorboards with a long masonry drill bit via one of the door sill vent
holes in order to discover the best route for the coal hole sump pump
outflow pipe. The hoped for appearance of the drill bit through the
plasterboard that had been nailed to the hallway floor joists should
eliminate the guesswork involved at this stage of the project.

All in all, a rather frustrating afternoon. I rather doubt there'll be
any inverter gensets in stock for the Lidl staff to exchange with my
faulty unit tomorrow so it looks like I'll have to console myself with a
refund and keep on looking for my next inverter genset bargain.

If I'm going to have to spend a few hundred quid on a less marginally
rated inverter genset, I'll be opting for an electric start model after
all of the faff I had with pull starting that lightweight "Suitcase"
model today (the lack of mass doesn't help any when it comes to pull
starting these gensets).

Looking on the bright side, the coal hole still remains nice and dry. I
imagine I can still pump water from the sump standpipe but I'll wait
until I've finished the outflow plumbing job before running the pump
again.

--
Johnny B Good