Nobody is complaining about their sump pumps because they are handy in collecting water in the basement of many homes. You can read more about them when you click here.
These submersible pumps sit at the bottom of a pit in the lowest point of the basement. When a house is first built, most of the groundwater is channeled into the drain system that is located at the bottom of the pit.
If the pumps fail to do their work, most of the homeowners can experience flooding during rainy seasons. Most homeowners realize that maintaining their pumps is their first line of defence against any flooding. When this fails to work, the pump itself can cause flooding in a worst-case scenario.
Why Sump Pumps Fail?
These mechanical devices can malfunction as with any other appliance in the home, primarily if they have been operating for a long time. If you are considering a new one here’s a buying guide that you might want to check out: https://www.hometips.com/buying-guides/sump-pumps.html. These devices are not built equally, and some were poorly designed and built cheaply. Another factor that can contribute to a pump’s malfunction can be improper installation.
Common Problems with Sump Pumps
1. Overwhelmed with the Flood
There are times when an area can be flooded several times a year. During the wet seasons, a single device can’t handle all the flooding, and it might not be powerful enough to counter the force of water that is pouring in. If an area is prone to tropical storms or heavy rains, flooding can be possible in the basement area.
One thing most people can do is to make sure that they have a pump that has the capacity and the quality to handle floodwater in their basements. Most high-capacity devices are made with cast iron, and other companies have proven successful through the years that their products can be robust and reliable at the same time.
2. No Water Found in the Pits
If the device seems to be working, but you can’t find any water in the pit, you might have a problem with the installation. Most often, the pump is not linked to your house’s drainage system, so the water that is collected will not go into the pit where it should have supposed to go.
Most of the drainage and the sumps go together. The sumps work best if the drains are installed in the internal parameters of your basement area. Most drainage systems in basements are built to collect rainwater into a kind of sump where it discharges in a pit. If the drainage collapsed or it was clogged, you might have to reinstall the sump to divert the water to the correct pit.
You might want to inspect and fix your drainage system if the pump appears to be working, but you can’t see any water in the pit. Once the system is installed correctly, you should see the rainwater being collected into the pit, and everything will work fine.
3. Clogged Switches of Sumps
Some sumps do not have lids, and these are common in many basements. Over time, the surface will get dirty or clogged if proper maintenance is not done. You can read about inspection and repair guides if you want to make sure that everything’s fine with your device. There are a lot of ways in which a pump can get clogged, and these are the following:
- The pit or the hole where the device sits receives a lot of dirt and debris.
- Some of the mechanical parts of the pump were not adequately maintained. As a result, they become dirty over time, and the silt accumulates.
- Some of the float switches are clogged or jammed as a result of changes in the water level.
- In cases of cheaper sump models, most of the switches get tangled because there were not properly made. Some homeowners that their devices were stuck into the “on” mode 24/7, and you won’t want this to happen to your device.
What you can do is to make an inspection of your device and see if it might be time for you to buy a new one. There are new sumps that have covers to prevent silts and debris from accumulating. There are also air-tight sumps that are pet and child-friendly. The newer models nowadays ensure that rainwater will not be able to evaporate into the area of your basement.
You might want to search for keywords such as plumbers near me on your search engines if you think that your pump is nearing its lifespan. You can ask the experts about the best thing that you need to do to make sure that there’s not going to be a flood in your basement during rainy seasons.
4. Frozen Discharge Lines
The sump pumps collect rainwater and expel it through a dedicated discharge line that is typically outside of your home. There are times when these discharge lines become frozen in winter, and they get clogged. As a result, the entire basement is prone to flooding.
The discharge lines should ideally be covered and clean. One of your goals, if you are a homeowner, should be to make sure that the transported water will be discharged from your house as far away as possible.
If you notice that your discharge lines are frozen or clogged, you can install it with a kind of protection that will keep the lines from freezing. There are other kinds of protection that you can install at the end to prevent mice, debris, and other pests from coming into the lines and clog the system. You can visit your nearest plumber for more information about these.
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