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Author:
Hnupe (IN)
Hello,
I have made significant investment in my basement, that being said I currently have one sump pump with a back-up that is "water powered". My pit can currently handle another sump pump...should I add a second main pump with a "water powered" backup? Any thoughts? I have not had flooding yet...however my pump gets it workout after it rains.
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Author:
Palm329 (VA)
I have the exact same scenario as you.
I have a zoeller electric and the liberty pumps water powered sump jet.
What I did to protect against any failure is install a whole house 22kw generator.
The electric pump is primary. The generator will keep it going if the electric fails.
If the electric pump breaks (or the circuit breaker or gfci feeding it trips), the water powered pump backs that up.
I’m feeling pretty good about my redundancies at this point.
I did consider a second electric pump, however since you typically would mount it higher (to only activate when the primary fails), you can have issues with failure due to lack of use. Kinda like driving your car once a week for a year is actually better for the car than keeping it shut off for that year.
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Author:
sharp1 (IL)
I have 2 sump pits side by side. Foundation water drains into the primary and if it reaches a certain height will flow into the secondary pit. The primary pump in the primary sump is a submersible with a fixed float switch. The secondary pump in the primary sump is a pedestal plastic unit (nothing to rust) with an adjustable float. The secondary sump pit contains a water powered Zoeller.
I can and do test the pedestal pump every 2 or 3 weeks just by lifting the float switch and letting it run one cycle. The pedestal pump discharges through a second line, and it is visible to me as I come and go to tell me the primary pump has failed. In the 25 years since I built my home, I am still using the same pedestal pump and am on the third submersible unit. At no time during our rare power failures has any water ever flowed into the secondary pit. I have used a generator twice for a few hours when the power was off.
I have 2 ball valves where the waterline enters my basement. One is a dedicated line to the water powered backup pump which is always left on. The second valve shuts off the normal water usage in the house and we use that when we travel.
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