My basement flooded and I'm hoping someone can tell me exactly what happened for insurance and future planning purposes. My toilet flapper inside the tank was stuck completely open for 3 hours. It went to my ejector pit and may have overflowed from the floor drain that connects to the pit. There was no water on top of the pit cover. The water spread out to almost half the floor but was shallow. Only the bottom of the baseboard got wet. I have a basic Zoeller ejector pump with 2" discharge from 06' (installed by previous owner). The float has been stuck before and caused some leakage so I cleaned all the solids out about a month ago. The pit may only be as deep as my sump pit which means its technically to shallow. I installed a quiet check valve with a spring soon after I cleaned the pit. The toilet was rarely used since but the pump ran fairly often because my central humidifier water drains to the ejector pit.

Right before I found the flood I heard the pump kick on twice in a short period and each time it was pumping longer than normal. I closed the toilet flapper and shut off the water to the central humidifier and the flooding seemed to stop. The pump seems to be working again. I should have peaked inside pit at the time but I didn't.

What caused my flood?
A) stuck pump float switch
B ) toilet paper stuck to spring in quiet check valve
C) pump couldn't keep up with running toilet and humidifier runoff
D) All of the above
E) none of the above

Please help! Thanks



Edited 1 times.

B and C are improbable with a functioning pump. Therefore, the pump is either failing or it did not run in order to pump the water out, which leaves a problem with the float switch.

imo: you should NOT have a spring or any other check on an (sewage) ejector pump

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

quote; you should NOT have a spring or any other check on an (sewage) ejector pump
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In that case you have NOT installed many ejector pumps, because they ALL, regardless of the discharge pipe size, have "check valves", but not usually spring loaded ones. Otherwise you wind up pumping the same water out continually as the pump shuts off and the water is siphoned back in to the pit.

an ejector pump is NOT the same as a sump pump

however

if a check is REALLY REALLY required (some codes require a 'backflow' check)

it MUST be a full port horizontal swing check installed HORIZONTALLY

so the vertical discharge piping must offset horizontally to allow for the installation



ps. this is a Zoeller sketch

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638



Edited 3 times.

Very interesting. Unfortunately I would be very difficult to add a horizontal to my piping system. What if I used a 3" full flow check valve installed vertically? The main concern would be toilet paper or waste not making the 90 degree turn near the ceiling and settling down on top of the valve. If you had a powerful pump that grinds solids would that make a stuck check valve highy unlikely? My vertical section from the bottom of pit to the 90 degree bend by the ceiling is around 10 feet. I'm also thinking of getting a sensor float switch that won't get mechanically jammed from toilet paper. Is there a specific type of sensor switch you would recommend? Thanks

an ejector pump IS a powerful pump which grinds 'solids' such as TP, 'turds', etc. and is designed to handle sanitary waste

a sump pump is designed for water only

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==============================================

"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638