The dangerous thing about a dry summer is not the drought. It is that your sump pump has not run in ten weeks, and nobody has noticed that it no longer works.
Pumps fail quietly. A seized impeller, a stuck float, a corroded switch, a check valve that has gone stiff: none of these announce themselves while the basin is dry. They announce themselves on the first night of the first serious storm, which in this province is generally September.
What goes wrong while a pump sits idle
The float sticks. Debris, silt and mineral scale build up around the float and its guide. A float that cannot rise cannot start the pump, and it is by far the most common failure we find.
The impeller seizes. Sediment settles in the volute while the pump is dry, and a motor that has not turned in months can bind on start-up.
The check valve stiffens. A flapper that has dried out may not seat properly, which means backflow and short-cycling as soon as the pump does start.
The discharge line blocks. Debris, silt, or a nest in the outlet. You will not know until water has nowhere to go.
The backup battery dies. Deep-cycle batteries lose capacity over time whether or not they are used. A backup with a dead battery is a decorative object.
The fifteen-minute check
Do this at the end of every dry stretch, and once in early autumn regardless.
- Look in the basin. Lift the lid. Clear any silt, gravel or debris.
- Test it with real water. Pour a bucket of water in slowly until the float rises. The pump should start promptly, empty the basin, and stop. Lifting the float by hand tests the switch but not much else, use water.
- Listen. A healthy pump has a steady hum. Grinding, rattling, or a motor that hums without moving water means the impeller is obstructed or the motor is failing.
- Watch the water level after it stops. If it rises again straight away without any inflow, your check valve is not holding, and the pump is lifting the same water repeatedly.
- Walk to the discharge point. Confirm water is actually coming out, well away from the house, onto ground that carries it off.
- Test the backup. Unplug the primary pump and pour in water again. The backup should take over. Plug the primary back in when you are done.
- Check the battery date. Most need replacing every three to five years.
Fifteen minutes, twice a year
That is the whole maintenance regime. It is not complicated, and it catches almost everything that causes a sump pump to fail at the worst possible moment.
If something in that list does not behave the way it should, or if your pump is past about eight years old and you would rather not find out the hard way, we can look at it. A replacement on a scheduled Tuesday costs a fraction of what a flooded basement costs on a Saturday night in a storm.
While you are down there
A dry basement in August is also the best time to look for the things you cannot see when it is wet: hairline cracks you can mark and monitor, efflorescence on the walls, rust lines on stored boxes showing how high water once got, and the state of the floor-wall joint.
Fixing any of it is cheaper now than in April, and our calendar is a great deal emptier.
Written by the crew at Maritime Basement Waterproofing.
More advice →
