Our sump pump failed yesterday. We've had two days of heavy rain (unusual for this area, but not unheard of, either) and apparently it was too much.

I've got a little 1/10 HP transfer pump working on it right now. It's rated for 6.2 gpm and that looks about right, given the flow at the discharge. This is barely able to keep up with the water coming into the pit. I don't know how long this little feller can keep running continuously -- the motor housing is definitely warm, but you can easily keep your hand on it, so I'm not too worried... yet.

I'm hoping to get a new pump tomorrow, as I can't leave the transfer pump running unattended because if it runs dry it will burn up quickly. I'm also going to be out of town for several days next week and I don't want to leave my wife with this situation.

But as I look at the availability at the the usual suspects (The Home Depot and Lowes) I'm not very confident in the reviews that I'm seeing. I'm willing to spend some money to get a good quality, reliable pump, but every brand either one of them carries has several reviews indicating quick failures. I've checked a couple review sites and they would seem to indicate that Zoeller and Wayne are good brands, but even some of those remark on complaints about reliability and early failures. I've also seen some reviews that claim that several brands (Zoeller, in particular) that used to be good brands are now outsourced and are the typical low-quality Chinese product. I haven't tried to confirm those claims.

So what I'm looking for is some information regarding brands (and models?) that you have found (preferably fairly recently) that are good quality. I'll then call around to other types of places that are more specialty plumbing and such and see if I can find any in town.

I guess another alternative would be to get a couple low-cost pumps and install one and have the other on the shelf ready to throw in when this one fails. Actually, I think I'm going to get a low-cost backup pump to set on the shelf regardless.

TIA.

 

The wire extrusion plant I used to work in used Dayton pedestal sump pumps from Grainger. They were used for circulation of cooling water through "closed" loop (open troughs, open top tanks) heat exchanger systems. They almost never had issues. One of them did, and got thrown out. I recovered it from the scrap bin, brought it home and didn't touch it for years. I never knew what was wrong with it until I needed it, so I plugged it in and found out; the bearing was gone out of the bottom so the impeller was just bouncing around inside the housing making racket. I needed it right then and didn't care, put it to work. It ran for a month before the impeller broke off and then it kept running.

I don't know why but some of them are $200-300 and others are $900+, with very similar specs. I'm sure if you dig deeper than I did, there will be a reason for it.

https://www.grainger.com/category/p...ump-pumps/pedestal-sump-pumps?categoryIndex=2

 

I hadn't even thought of checking Grainger. So I did -- and then remembered why I probably didn't think of it.

They carry a few different brands, including Zoeller, which is a brand that Lowes carries. Lowe's Manufacturer Part Numbers don't align with the part numbers on the Zoeller site, but I think I see how they are arriving at them. Based on that, plus matching up pictures and specs, I think I've identified a few pumps that are carried by both Lowes and Grainger and where Lowes charges ~$200, Grainger charges ~$500 for the same pump. That jives with my general recollection of Grainger. To me, they are somewhat akin to DigiKey -- their prices can be pretty outrageous, but they are often the only place that has something in stock, which often makes the outrageous price downright attractive.

 

So I checked with three plumbing and heating places and they all recommended the Little Giant 6-series. The service manager at one place says that the owner uses them for his pond, so it runs 24/7, and the first one failed last year after eleven years of service. I've seen some sites that claim that ten to fifteen years is the typical life expectancy of a sump pump (which generally see pretty low duty cycles). I probably can't complain too much about the original pump here, since it's almost certainly original to the house, making it eighteen years old. The Home Depot and Lowes both carry the Little Giant pump (@ $150), but are out of stock until next week. Grainger has one up in Denver (@ $210). I found a supply house in town that has them in stock (@ $230). Since it costs a lot more than $20 in gas (not to mention time) to go to Denver, Grainger is out. But for the $80 difference between The Home Depot and the supply house I can get a cheapie pump that's in stock. So I think I will grab one of those and install it today, then order the Little Giant and either stick it on the shelf in the furnace room so that it's ready to use when the cheapie fails, or put in on the list to swap them out this summer and use the cheapie as a backup. Although I would rather have the good pump in use, I'm leaning toward leaving the cheapie in place because I don't like the idea of setting a pump that has had water in it on the shelf for (hopefully) several years and then relying on it to still work when it's needed most.

 

I hadn't even thought of checking Grainger.

While your at it, don't forget Harbor Freight.

Their pumps will run for at least a week at moderate duty (ask me about the air compressor I got on sale!).

 

Would it be possible to connect two pumps in parallel for redundancy (likely with added check valves) so that if one fails, the other will still work.
Also if one can't handle the flow, they would both come on.

But you would likely want some way to know when a pump failed.
Not sure of the best way to detect that.
What was the failure mode?

 

Would it be possible to connect two pumps in parallel for redundancy (likely with added check valves) so that if one fails, the other will still work.
Also if one can't handle the flow, they would both come on.

But you would likely want some way to know when a pump failed.
Not sure of the best way to detect that.
What was the failure mode?

I would love to put two pumps down there, but there isn't enough room in the pit. I could probably stack one on top of the other -- the pit's pretty deep. Would definitely need separate check valves on them. The top pump shouldn't ever come on unless the bottom pump failed or just got totally swamped, so I could rig some kind of alarm that would sound whenever the top pump came on to tell me to check things out.

Not sure what the failure mode of the old pump was. All I know at this point is that if I try to power it from the GFCI in the bathroom that it trips it immediately. What's strange is that the plug in the mechanical room that it was plugged into says it's on a GFI (written in pen on the outlet cover, I have no idea where the actual GFI is located). So I assumed that that GFI would be popped, too. But when I plugged something else into that outlet, it came on with no problems. So the pump isn't drawing enough current to blow a panel breaker. I'm guessing the failure is causing a ground fault but that the GFI on the mechanical room circuit (if there actually is one) has gone bad.

 

Not sure what the failure mode of the old pump was. All I know at this point is that if I try to power it from the GFCI in the bathroom that it trips it immediately.

So an additional requirement would be that the two pumps be on separate breakers, so that one tripping a breaker wouldn't shut off the other one also.
This could likely be done with two lower current breakers (perhaps 5A) connected to one line with a higher current breaker.

 

So an additional requirement would be that the two pumps be on separate breakers, so that one tripping a breaker wouldn't shut off the other one also.
This could likely be done with two lower current breakers (perhaps 5A) connected to one line with a higher current breaker.

These are half-horsepower pumps and I don't know what the inrush current peaks out at. There's only a single outlet in the mechanical room (and it's not a dual outlet, truly a single). But the panel is almost directly above it, so running a new line down there probably would not be too difficult. Famous last words. Another alternative, which would kill another bird, would be to have the second pump be on a battery back-up.

 

For me pump failure is not an option. I use Zoeller pumps and keep two in the sump, one a few inches above the other. Each pump is on a separate GFCI 20 amp breaker. Minimum 1.5" outlet, 3,000 GPH with a 10 Ft head. I also have a 3/4 HP 2" outlet pump out in the garage as a reserve pump. Also have a backup generator in case we lose power during a storm. Zoller isn't quite cheap but are there when needed. Anyway, Zoller has been my go to for years.

Ron

 

The reservation I have with Zoeller is just that I have seen a number of reviews that claim that their quality has really dropped in recent years. Would not surprise me, given how many top-quality brands have gone the same way. But haven't confirmed it.

I went to get a cheapo pump and when I got to The Home Depot they were complete sold out of them, at any price level. They had seven there last night. Clearly I'm not the only one that lost a pump in this storm (or that discovered that they really needed something). I ended up going to another store (the same one I had to go to last night to get the transfer pump) and their stock was done noticeably from what it was last night. The cheapest they had was $99 (a 1/4 HP Everbuilt, which is a brand with quite a few bad reviews).

It installed very easily and seems to be working nicely. For now. The only hiccup was a hose clamp that teleported somewhere. There are four clamps on the check valve. I verified that all four were in place and oriented the way I wanted. I then installed the check valve and when I went to tighten the clamps realized that they were oriented the opposite of the way I intended -- sure enough, I put the check valve in backwards. This is why I like to do things like orienting resistors ... and clamps ... a certain way, even though, functionally, it makes no difference. Makes it so much more likely that you will spot when something is wrong. So I removed the check valve and flipped it over and when I went to tighten the clamps... one of them was missing. My feet literally had not moved throughout this entire process. It's nowhere to be found. The only possibility is that it fell into the sump pit, but that's a little hard to believe given that the hole in the pit cover is barely large enough for it to fit through and I should have heard it splash into the water, if nothing else.

But I sure can't find it. So... duct tape to the rescue. It's holding now, but there's going to be a static eight feet of head working on it, so it probably won't last for long. That's fine, pulling it apart and installing a new clamp should be the work of less than five minutes -- I just need the clamp. I have a bunch of them. Somewhere. In some box that hasn't been unpacked yet.

Still going to get a Little Giant pump and keep in reserve. But at least I can have some peace of mind that my wife won't have to deal with it when I go on a trip next week.

Best estimate is that that little transfer pump moved about 6000 gallons of water.

 

The reservation I have with Zoeller is just that I have seen a number of reviews that claim that their quality has really dropped in recent years. Would not surprise me, given how many top-quality brands have gone the same way. But haven't confirmed it.

Good point and my pumps are maybe 4 to 5 years old. I saw mention of Harbor Freight to as to an inexpensive quick fix that seems real viable. The backup to backup in my garage came from Lowes and no clue the brand but remember it is a 3/4 HP with a 2" outlet. Can't speak for newer Zoller pumps but many thanks for passing along that information.

Ron

 

Best estimate is that that little transfer pump moved about 6000 gallons of water.

You must have a veritable spring in your basement when it rains.

 

You must have a veritable spring in your basement when it rains.

Pretty much -- the 6.2 gpm pump was only able to keep pace with the water coming in for better than 16 hours (and the old sump pump was working away for nearly two days before that).

The ground around here (in much of this part of the country) can't hold much water and so it saturates very quickly.

 

Well, the new pump failed -- why am I not surprised -- and the flooding in the basement is far worse this time. The pump lasted almost exactly 30 days. I don't have the replacement yet -- it is on back order. I will probably go down to the place in town that had them in stock and pay the substantially higher price. Would have been money ahead had I just done that the first time -- assuming that that pump isn't crap quality, too.

Now it's time to get the water out of several carpeted areas that are completely soaked. A lot of stuff that was sitting on the floor is damaged, too. Most of it is stuff that I can, frankly, live without.