paulsiu

My neighbor the plumber suggested a while back to add a Sumpro for backup. I did take his advice and install one. This was fortuitous since after a few months after I install the Sumpro, there was a massive hail storm that knocked out the power for half the day. The Sumpro run continuously during that time and dropped to 80% power. Ironically, the plumber who recommended the sumpro had his basement flooded. He had two sumppro and two sump pump but apparently his batteries were old. He didn't replace the battery because the sumpro told him that they were OK and had 95% power. I actually had a similar problem with my watchdog who said my battery had water when it was empty. I am thinking I should test the battery monthly and replace it every 5 years or so. I figure I could test it by unplugging the battery for half and hour and see how far it goes down. Paul

Back in July or so, there was hail storm that dropped ice cube size hail on our property. I could hear the banging all the way in the basement. There were trees branches all over my yard, but the house seemed OK. This was followed up by a bunch of people knocking on our door telling us that we had hail damage (I ignored them, they show up every year). I took a look around and notice there were several a few visible dent, but a lot of the other ones were not visible until you look closely, some holes in the window screen, some odd marks in the rain gutter. There were no visible damaged to the roof. I had the roofer who was doing my neighbor's roof take a look and he indicated that we should file a claim and have the roof and siding replaced. His reasoning was that there was impact on the shingle which would eventually collect water and eventually result in leaks and the dents in the siding can't be fixed because they can't get the same colors. I did call my insurance agent, who indicated that if I have damage, we should file unless the damage is below the deductible. I asked if there was some consequences, he indicated that if you file more than 1 claim within a time period of a 5 years or so, we could get dropped. I guess my worry is that we could fix the house only to get hit by a tornado next year. Keep in mind that I have never file a claim with home owners, so I am not even sure what to expect. On one hand, I don't want to file a claim, on the other hand, I don't want to devalue my house. What can I do to determine if I should file or not. I am not sure if the roofer is objective enough. Should I hire some sort of independent adjuster or inspector to take a look? According to my agent, having the insurance adjuster look at it would require me to file a claim. Thanks. Paul

I finally purchased a Sumpro unit for battery backup for my sump pump. The instruction say that it should be on a stand because warranty is void if it gets wet. I was going to stack it on top of some cinder blocks, which are typically about 8 inches tall. However, the vendor recommended at least 12 inches off the floor. I am a bit puzzled by 12 inches. 1. Is there usually a code for battery backup devices on how they are required to be installed? 2. Why 12 inches? The vendor would not say except that it is recommended height for keeping it dry. I think if the basement ended up with a foot of water, the sumpro is probably not going to help. Even it if the power goes out and the primary and backup sump pump dies, it would probably not fill up with 1 foot of water. Paul

Thanks Kurt, I am actually in Chicago area. You are not kidding with the retention pond. There are several common retention pond to handle runoffs from the houses. One year, it rain so much that all of the retention ponds merged together. I am going to go with the Sumpro because it is unlikely that I can get a generator solution under $2k. I may consider the generator at some point in the future. I need a solution that I can implement now. Paul

In regards to the automated switch option, any idea how much it would cost to install such a setup assuming you have the generator (which appears to cost $2K for the base model). Paul

I am not sure if there are crush stones. However, the issue occur when the ground is saturated after several rain storms. The pump actually only goes off every 1/2 hour or so in moderate rainstorms. Even brief heavy rainstorm doesn't trigger it. Paul

I looked around out back and notice that there is a gas line tap of some kind. Assuming that the line has the capacity, I could probably just install the generator on the gas line, which should work still when there is a power outage. However, it appears that majority of the generator install uses a manual switch over, which is not acceptable since I need it to work when I am away. Installing one of those things will probably require approval from the Village and the additional electric work is probably going to require time and money. This may be a future upgrade. So I am thinking of the following setup. * Primary pump running off a SumPro. * Battery backup pump, which while a bit anemic works pretty well in normal rain. Scenarios 1. If it starts raining heavily and the power doesn't go out, the primary sump pump activates and pumps out the water. 2. If it starts raining heavily and the power goes out, the primary runs on sumpro, which should work for at least a day. If that runs out of power, it switches over to the backup pump, which may or may not pump out the water, but should work for light to moderate rainstorms. 3. If the primary motor malfunctions, then the backup sump pump will take over. It won't work in heavy rain, but at least the basement won't flood under normal conditions. I'll check the system monthly and test it

Kurt, I thank you for your reply for Sumpro. This was the info I needed. Marc and Ghentjr, The generator idea is intriguing. I didn't explore that option because I thought generators with fail overs were around $10K, but I suppose that would be for the whole house. A smaller one to power the sump, fridge and may be the wireless network (since VOIP won't work without power) would be sufficient. I also like the idea having a backup where I can swap out a tank to continue operation in the event of a lengthy outage. Maintenance-wise, I would think a propane would be better than gas. Gas has a tendency collect water especially with ethanol blend. I have to dump all of the gas out of my snowblower or the carb rust out even when I used stabilizers. My first question is do I have to be there to switch over the generator? In my experience, bad things tend to happen when one is away. Paul

Thanks for the reply, I have thought of the water power pumps and I am on city water, but rejected the idea on several points. 1. On rare occasion, I have seen the amount of water coming in exceed 2000 gph. A water system probably won't keep up. 2. A water pump probably requires backflow, which means I have to pay at least $100 a year to test the backflow. I have to do this currently for my sprinkler. 3. Water is quite expensive here. The price of water appears to have double in the last couple of years. Running the sprinkler for 30 minutes per week resulted in around $200. It probably takes quite a bit of water to run the sump pump. 4. I worry that if the power goes out, the pumping station may be affected. This may be a unfounded fear, since I haven't lose water pressure in any of the black outs. In the past 8 years, I haven't actually encounter a situation where I had heavy rain accompanied by a power outage. Even with heavy rain, the heavy load only last at most an hour. I have never had power outage more than a day. The issue is the volume of water. I think water power pumps are better in place where the power is unreliable and the volume of water isn't too high. Paul Paul

Problem In the Midwest, there are days when the ground is saturated from several days of rain and then a big rain storm hits. As a result, the amount of water can overpower a 1/3 hp sump pump, though the deluge usually only last an hour or so. My concern is if the power goes out during that hour. A lot of the backup sump pump usually only pumps at about 900 - 1000 gph on a 10 foot head, not enough to keep the basement from flooding. I asked several neighbors, one of them a license plumber, most of them have Sumpro. The plumber that he chose the Sumpro solution because the backup won't pump enough water. 1. What's your opinion of using Sumpro + Primary rather than a backup? Are there better alternatives for similar price? 2. How difficult is the Sumppro to install. It appears that it should be sitting on some sort of pedestal (I was thinking about stacking a bunch of bricks) and then just plug in the primary? 3. What would be the continuous runtime if I paired a 1800w sumpro with a 1/2hp Zoeller M98 or equivalent? This is just the worse case scenario. Long power outages are rare in this area, but I have had power loss for a bit over a day and the power outages are not usually accompanied by heavy rain. I done some research on this forum and notice there was another thread recommending Sumppro, so I am wondering if the recommendation still holds. Paul