[neverlandpirate]

I bought a 1950’s ranch about 4 years ago and had my sump pump replaced in 2014. I’m not sure if it was broken or I just never heard it running from upstairs, but it started pumping water out around every 5 minutes, then the next day it was every 9 minutes, and then 15 minutes, etc. In other words, it ran frequently but to me it didn’t seem all that much. I had a backup on it so I felt that I was well covered.

I also have an ejector pump that services the downstairs bathroom and sinks. This past summer, I had that replaced as well and right after the fact I started noticing it running way more frequently. I opened up the pit and noticed that water from the bathroom is coming in one side of the pit and water from the draintiles is coming in the other (all being treated as sewage). I asked around to my neighbors and they said that they used to allow sump pumps to discharge to the main sewer and never really enforced getting them disconnected so most people have the same setup. Still though, my situation is unusual because I have water from the washroom going in there as well. For the most part though, we don’t use the washroom at all so it’s mostly serving as a 2nd sump pump at this point (even though it’s a grinder pump).

Ever since I replaced this ejector pump, I’ve noticed it has taken over as the primary sump pump; meaning that my main sump pump never even runs anymore. (although maybe it was always this way and this pump is just way louder) Even worse, the ejector pump seems to run much more frequently than my sump pump ever did. After a fairly heavy rain storm, it will run literally every 2 minutes and do so for several days. Since we essentially have 2 sump pits, I’d prefer them to be used a little more evenly and right now this one is getting all the action. I’ve talked to plumbers and a basement waterproofing company and they all say to just leave it be if I haven’t had any water in the basement, but this kinda freaks me out.

So that’s the background and here are a few questions:

1) 1 option I considered was putting a water powered backup on this pit. I know those are mostly for actual sump pit and not really made for ejector pit, but I figured it might be ok since we don’t really use the bathroom and it would really only kick on if there is (likely) major rain and power goes out.
2) Another option would be raising the float a bit and allowing some water to settle into the drain tiles. I don’t know, but maybe this would mean water would flow over to the actual sump pit (assuming it’s all connected).
3) Some kind of add-on option to prevent water from even making it down there, sort of like a curtain drain. I asked one landscaper about a curtain drain and he said it wouldn’t really work because water just sits there unless you have a hill to run it down almost immediately.

Sorry for the long post, but I’ll mention a couple other things just to round everything out. 1) Check valve works fine. 2) Downspouts are away from the house. 3) The pump will stop running when it's dry so I've ruled out any leaks. 4)) I do have a short retaining wall on one side of the house that probably does not have any drainage. While the downspouts direct water to the other side of the retaining wall, I do kinda wonder if water just kinda sits inside of there with nowhere to go.

Thanks!

 

[Ghostmaker]

"I also have an ejector pump that services the downstairs bathroom and sinks. This past summer, I had that replaced as well and right after the fact I started noticing it running way more frequently. I opened up the pit and noticed that water from the bathroom is coming in one side of the pit and water from the draintiles is coming in the other (all being treated as sewage)."

Sending storm water to the sewer is really a very bad idea. EPA and your local sewer provider may have issues with that. Currently in areas that had combined storm sewer such as Cleveland and other city areas EPA has them building retention ponds to hold all that extra water for treatment after it rains. Prior to this they just dumped all that untreated waste water to lake Erie.. Same place we get our drinking water from.

 

[AllanJ]

During the year depending on rainfall, there is a sweet spot that goes up and down. If the sump pump float is set above this level the pump stays off for long periods of time. If the float is set below this level the pump keeps cycling.

SOmetimes the sweet spot is such that you try to let water settle into the drain tiles in exchange for less pump running. This may or may not work; you may get water up on the floor at the opposite corner of the basement if you let the level in the pit come up too high over the drain tile ends as seen. If you get water up on the floor, you need to wait several days to let the soil all around the basement perimeter desaturate after lowering the pump float to see whether the new setting is good enough.

Waste water must never be allowed to get into the sump pump pit and drain tiles. This will cause extra odors and shorten the sump pump life due to corrosion.

If you have two sump pumps and one rarely runs, give it some exercise by unplugging the other for a month during not so rainy season.