We just purchased a foreclosed home to rent out. It was in great shape at a good price. The basement is finished and has an ejector pump that handles the out flow from a washing machine, a kitchen (sink and dishwasher) and a bathroom (toilet, sink and shower). The home is serviced by municipal water and has on-site septic.
We have two concerns:
1) Should the potential quantity of flow into the pit (i.e. dishwasher, washing machine and shower all draining at the same time) be of any concern? The pump seems to work fine but we have not tested all appliances draining at once, and,
2) Do they make some sort of battery back-up for the ejector pump system? In the event of a power outage, the dishwasher and washing machine will not drain but someone could continue to take a shower or use the kitchen or bathroom sink.
If we were living there, this would not be a concern as we would know not to use the basement water. We will have tenants and it is anyone's guess if they will heed this warning in the event of a power outage. The house has one other bathroom but this is the only kitchen.
We appreciate any advice that can be given.

Thank you.

old Richard from Ask this Old House details this project for back up pump and power in one of the episodes. Probably find it online somewhere.

oops....yes it was just a sump not an ejector. learn something every day in this trade.



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The bathroom waste requires and ejector pump and as far as I know there are no battery powered ejector pumps.You could install a solenoid valve in the water supply to the basement so that when the power goes off it would close and prevent water usage downstairs.

I would be more concerned with the pump getting jammed up or failing entirely than I would be with a power failure. In the event that you lose power, the people living in the basement cave will be stumbling in the dark, not taking showers.

for tenants, i would install an alarm attached to a float in the tank.
if the pump is not working the float will rise and set off the alarm. the power to the alarm can easily have a battery back-up.
this way you have the protection you are looking for plus and added bonus of protection in case of pump failure.

A back up gasoline/natural gas generator.. with automatic switching would be the less complicated. It would insure a constant power source for the waste pump and most anything else on the property that requires electric energy. The automatic switching would mean that your renters would not have to touch it.

Any other choices would involve a level of risk. With Risk, comes the need for insurance or special protection insurance.

Best Wishes

In these situations it is often practice to install two pumps incase one fails and a back up alarm

There are water sensing alarms that can alert your phone if they can access a wireless network I have been told, but I didn't look into them myself yet.

I like what HJ and Packy posted, put the two together. Like HJ said, put electric solenoids on the basement hot and cold supply, if power goes out, there's no flushing and no showers. Add Packy's battery back up alarm system, and connect it also the solenoids, so if the pump fails, the basement supply waters are shut off as well.

A back up generator would be over-kill if the pump failed.

quote; A back up generator would be over-kill if the pump failed.

And the typical single pump basin used in a basement does not have space for two pumps.