Help with sump pump set up!

With all the rain we've been having I noticed that my current crock is filling up to the drainage pipe in my crock every 5 minutes. That's over a gallon a minute. This morning of ALL mornings my 1/2 horse pump went out. Thank God I was home, I was able to ghetto rig another pump I had laying around before it overflowed. I have a long ranch style house with the current sump crock located at one end of the house. I was wondering should plan on putting another crock on the opposite side of the house (See paint drawing) to equal out the water distribution? Another question, my current crock only has the drainage coming from one side, why doesn’t it come from the other side? I’ve called Badger, Complete Basements and another place for quotes and a visit, but they are so busy right now I will not be able to see anyone until next month. See pictures and drawing. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Thank you BCM,

Josh


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Not needed. Sam's(Mr. Horseplay) company Rozga Plumbing put in 2 industrial pumps in our crock and updated to larger diameter discharge tubing. We lived in the swamps of Brookfield and this worked A1. BTW this was a large ranch basement and was much easier than another crock!

My house (1300 sq ft ranch) had exactly this done to it, as well as replacing all of the drain tile before I purchased it. I would only do this if you were also upgrading the drain tile as well, because you'd probably need to bust out the entire perimeter of the basement to do it right (no other way to plumb the drain into the new crock that I can think of).

The only thing I think is stupid about how they did it in mine, is all of the water is expelled out the front of the house, so there is PVC literally covering the entire span of the basement just to connect up to a common outlet.

If your basement is usually dry (is it?), do you really need another crock? Sounds like what you want is just a back up sump pump...maybe look into a battery back up to cover you in case of poweroutage too.

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Originally Posted by Prince Valiant

If your basement is usually dry (is it?), do you really need another crock? Sounds like what you want is just a back up sump pump...maybe look into a battery back up to cover you in case of poweroutage too.

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Given that we're in flood conditions that are relatively uncommon currently, this sounds like a more reasonable action IMO.

Dont even have Badger Basement come out, a blind monkey with one arm could do better work..

I think you just have to let us know how often your pump runs, personally having a good pump in there with one Y'd into it with a check valve that is hooked up to a battery box is ideal. They have a float on it you positioin above your current one.

My understanding even IF the power is still on and your pump fails or just can't pump out the water faster then the rate of it coming it the extra battery back up pump will assist pushing it out...

X2 on badger. I've heard nothing but bad things about them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wagonbacker9

My house (1300 sq ft ranch) had exactly this done to it, as well as replacing all of the drain tile before I purchased it. I would only do this if you were also upgrading the drain tile as well, because you'd probably need to bust out the entire perimeter of the basement to do it right (no other way to plumb the drain into the new crock that I can think of).

The only thing I think is stupid about how they did it in mine, is all of the water is expelled out the front of the house, so there is PVC literally covering the entire span of the basement just to connect up to a common outlet.

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I don't have the money to trench and replace the entire drain tile on top of another crock. When I get my taxes back I do have the money for a new crock.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prince Valiant

If your basement is usually dry (is it?), do you really need another crock? Sounds like what you want is just a back up sump pump...maybe look into a battery back up to cover you in case of poweroutage too.

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The basement is very dry, I have a de-humidifier running all summer and good circulation year round. I'm very lucky to have a good foundation and no water problems except for the crock filling up so quickly.

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Originally Posted by awsomeears

Dont even have Badger Basement come out, a blind monkey with one arm could do better work..

I think you just have to let us know how often your pump runs, personally having a good pump in there with one Y'd into it with a check valve that is hooked up to a battery box is ideal. They have a float on it you positioin above your current one.

My understanding even IF the power is still on and your pump fails or just can't pump out the water faster then the rate of it coming it the extra battery back up pump will assist pushing it out...

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lash

X2 on badger. I've heard nothing but bad things about them.

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I called them today and they are booked solid for the next month and a half. I did get a quote over the phone from Complete Basement Repair LLC, talked to a Kevin. $1500 for a crock, basin, lid, sump pump, plumbing and labor.

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I have or I should say I HAD and back up battery pump until this morning when launched it across my driveway towards the trash cans. As soon as the water level in the crock hit the Watch Dog float it did nothing. My deep cell battery was fully charged and the stupid Watch Dog pump didn't even work. I have a 5K watt gas generator right now, but if the power goes out on me and my wife and we’re not home I'm fucked. I just bought that Watch Dog back up two years ago at Home Depot and the warranty ran out two months ago. Total crap. Anyone recommend a backup battery pump system?
Thank you for the replies!

Yeah, any input on a good battery backup setup would be appreciated here as well...

I just checked and my sump pump setup is a Campbell Hausfield pump with a seperate tethered activation switch. Not very good I don't think. Doesn't seem like the system sees much use at all, but I would rather not find out it is crap just when I need it most. I would rather replace the pump with a quality unit, a battery backup secondary and be done with it knowing I am safe.

Any suggestions are appreciated. The best I can find so far is a Zoeller M57 3hp pump setup with a 507 Basement Sentry backup system for about $460 total from Home Depot minus the deep cycle battery.

I have the Wayne Battery Backup Pump setup and I have no complaints about it.

I have a watch dog system with 2 pumps and a battery backup. It has worked well for 5 years.

I have seen a diffrent type of sump backup that uses your "city water" connection to run a pump, no battires and no electric pretty slick.

http://www.waterdamagedefense.com/ca...red-sump-pump/

Well, after doing a ton of research and weighing in options in regards to adding in a backup system at the very least, I decided to go with a Barracuda pre-assembled primary and battery backup sump pump system. It is made by Superior Pumps and OEM'd to Menards as their house brand Barracuda and has the same part number as the Superior Pumps setup along with the same user manual, parts list, etc. Big difference is that the Superior Pumps branded version costs $499 if you can find it, where the Barracuda branded version is $297 at Menards. The Superior Pump model has a 3-year warranty where the Barracuda branded one has a 5-year warranty.

It has a 1/2hp 3480GPH @ 10' head 7.6amp cast iron 120v primary pump, a 12vDC 1080GPH @ 10' head thermoplastic backup pump, dual vertical float switches that are sliding rod floats, dual check valves, comes pre-assembled with both pumps sitting at the bottom of the sump, and also includes a battery case with 2 amp smart charger (ie, starts at 2 amp and reduces down until fully charged and won't overcharge the battery) that also includes an alarm. It is all pre-wired and is a complete drop-in installation. All you have to supply is a deep cycle battery, and it even includes battery post to wing-nut adapters in the kit.

I could have just added their battery backup system at $130 + PVC parts, check valve for the main pump and a battery, but the issue there is that setup has a few major deficiencies, those being it is meant to be mounted above the existing pump, not on the bottom as the pre-assembled version (which means it would only partially drain the sump), and that is a lot of weight to be hanging unsupported off the PVC piping, as well as the fact that it has a tethered float switch. Since my existing 1/3hp sump pump was also a tethered float switch (which isn't a big deal with it being the only thing in the sump), I was concerned that adding in the backup system and having dual float switches could have resulted in one or the other getting hung up and not actuating. That is the primary reason a vertical float switch, a slide float as well, not one of those hooked on floats (like the Wayne pre-assembled setup) that can fall off if they float the wrong way, is required over the tethered types.

For only about $120-140 more than the battery backup system by itself I got the pre-assembled system ready to go. The primary pump used in that system is $200 at Menards by itself and is almost $250 for the Superior branded version online. So, any way you look at it, the entire 92911 setup is a hell of a deal and a quick-fix for all worries.

For my installation, I already had an inline check valve 4 feet up the sump piping, so I just removed the existing sump pump below there, added in a 27" length of 1-1/2" PVC to the new system, cleaned out the crock and dropped it into place. Wired it all up using an extra group 78DT AGM car battery battery I just got as a warranty pro-rate replacement a couple months ago (I will add a proper deep cycle battery when I find a good deal on one, but I know that it will be an AGM as well), and tested it by filling the crock up with a hose. Both pumps actuated when they are supposed to with an audible alarm (that you can either have on or off), with the primary pump emptying the crock in around 5 seconds and the backup taking about 15 seconds considering the lower flow rate and the additional water in the crock. Both are damn near silent with you only really hearing the swoosh of the running water.

One thing I forgot to mention is my battery case/charger setup also has a standard USB port on it. No idea what it is for, and I cannot find any documentation outlining it's purpose. I would imagine it is probably for monitoring of the battery/charger. I will have to do some more research into it...

As a quick followup, I may add I ended up picking up an Exide 27MDC Deep Cycle Marine battery from Menards for $75+$5 core (no exchange because of a new setup)+tax = $84... That brings the grand total of the entire system to $407 complete. This battery had a manufactured sticker of February 2013 and a ship-date sticker of April 2013.

I brought this up because I have found that the newer Exide batteries all seem to be shipped in a partially charged state. Not only was this Marine battery that way, but so was an Exide Orbital 78DT I exchanged out under warranty a couple months ago. Unfortunately I didn't take a reading on them to determine initial retail voltage after purchase, but I did use a Pulsetech Xtreme Charger to charge both and they both took over 10 hours to fully charge. In comparison a brand new 78 MAXX from Walmart (with a sticker of 2/13 on it) took only 1.5 hours to fully charge on the same charger. A buddy was replacing his battery and stopped by on his way home with it, it being a Everstart 75 from Walmart and it also charged full in less than 2 hours. So, I think it is safe to conclude that Exide is shipping batteries partially charged, or they are going from the factory fully charged, to the shipment depot and sitting for an extended time before being shipped to retail (I don't trust the manufactured and shipped stickers, since I saw the guy at the Exide depot in Pewaukee put them on the batteries just before shipping them out), without the depot fully charging them before shipping (which I believe is what they are supposed to do).

So, moral of the story is make sure you fully charge a brand new battery with a quality smart charger before putting it into service, otherwise you may not be getting anywhere near the proper capacity. FYI