Anyone put two sump pumps in one basin?

[Egon]

Yes, the elders spoke of it in tales of yore. My take on it is still not clear.

With your tender years you probably didn't get to experience maintenance schedules set up by accredited people.

The newer generation have simplified it to "Run To failure Mode". They get terrific short term cost gains, get promoted, move on and others get the cleanup. But no promotion as costs go up. Then the cycle repeats!

 

[MossRoad]

With your tender years you probably didn't get to experience maintenance schedules set up by accredited people.

The newer generation have simplified it to "Run To failure Mode". They get terrific short term cost gains, get promoted, move on and others get the cleanup. But no promotion as costs go up. Then the cycle repeats!

We have a pretty good PM schedule where I work. We're a 24/7/365 operation. All of the machines are scheduled a year in advance for their PMs, which are quite detailed. Its great. I go in to work, check my email, read what machines need PMs this week, pull the PM procedures and perform them. No guessing.
:thumbsup:

 

[oosik]

I have a sewage grinder/discharge pump in my septic system pump tank. The discharge pipe that goes to the drain field some 250 feet away has a small weep hole in the discharge pipe about two feet above the pump. This allows all the effluent in the discharge pipe - from the pump to the drain field - to drain back into the pump tank and not freeze in the discharge line.

Believe me - my five HP grinder/discharge pump would have no problem working against a full head of fluid. This is the reason a weep hole is drilled into the discharge pipe for sewage pumping or for dewatering a basement.

 

[Sodo]

I bought a spare sump pump and plumbed it it ABOVE the main pump. I built a shelving system in the drywell and plumbed pump #2 out of a different hole, that exits near the back door. So if pump#2 ever runs, it not only keep the basement pumped out, the water squirting out of a different hole near the door will get noticed and it means the main pump didn't run. So I have 2 separate discharge hoses.

I bought the Zoeller brand, which seems like pretty good quality. After about ten years there was water squirting out of a "new hole" by the back door. It informed me of a problem.

The failure of pump#1 was just a stuck floater linkage, because the pump had vibrated and moved over the years. I repositioned it and all was well again, but it proved my backup system & "notification" was good. And the spare just sits (in storage, but all plumbed in) above it. Probably should unplug the main one and test the backup once in awhile. Cant do that in the summertime though but in the winter it sometimes runs every 20 minutes for days.

Don't have anything setup for power outages, other than a generator.

 

[Deere Dude]

I had two sump holes, two separate circuits, two separate lines outside with the online pump to a hose and the standby out the wall with a pipe stub so it can be seen. After no hiccups for ten years I decided I wanted a battery backup, so I put that in the back-up hole instead of the standard pump. The next spring we were home and one night the power went out and the 12v back-up pump kicked in like it should. The water was near the top of the hole when I noticed it and the pump was pumping minimally because the deep cycle battery was older and shot.

I hooked jumper cables from the car to it and it started pumping faster and fired up the generator for the main pump then all got well. Needless to say, if we weren't home at that time I would have had a mess. There doesn't seem to be a perfect solution. 12 Volt batteries need to be very good and checked every year even though it has a charging unit on it.

I would also suggest a pedestal type sump pump because in my case anyway, it would run longer and shut off longer so there wouldn't be any needless short cycling.

The best case scenario is like one poster mentioned is to drain it down hill through tiling, but if you are a flat-lander and have water coming into the basement pitch the grade away from the house as much as you can within reason.

 

[oosik]

I saw a system that had a standby generator that turned off/on based upon a float switch in the pump chamber. The basement had a large 75-100 gallon pump chamber built into the center of the floor. There was a grating over the opening to the chamber, so you did not fall in. The float switch turned the generator on which then supplied electricity to the sump pump. There was some kind of switching that caused the "system" to switch from house current to the backup generator when there was a power outage.

The entire system was controlled thru a fairly complex control panel. It operated like this - under normal conditions the sump pump would turn on when the float activated it and it ran on house current. During a power outage the system switched to the backup generator but the generator only turned on when the float switch said it was time to pump the pump chamber. When the pumping cycle was complete the sump pump & generator both turned off and waited for another signal from the float switch.

This standby operation continued until house current was restored. Then the operations switched back to house current. One of the beauties of this system was the generator ran on natural gas - so there was no requirement for large storage of volumes of gasoline. Once a month the system switched to generator for 24 hours just to keep the generator functional.

I'm sure this was a fairly expensive system.

 

[aeblank]

I bet it would be cheaper to get a whole-house generator that auto-starts and just let the sump work like normal.

 

[Sodo]

When the word "Cheaper" involves a $5,000 - $20,000 expenditure, maybe it's better to just make sure your normal systems are in good order but verify that your insurance has you covered for flooding.

For $25 per year a guy could replace his sump pump every 5 years. And keep the 'old' one for a spare.

Anyway, the original post title is: Anyone put two sump pumps in one basin?

My clarified answer

1) Yes, I have two pumps in one basin.
2) One pump is ABOVE the other, in the dry, so it acts as an un-used spare. It's in position, ready to work immediately upon failure of the main. I had to build a pedestal over the main pump. My basin is deep enough to accommodate the height of two pumps.
3) Pump #2 outlet is near my back door, and squirts out visibly, so I am notified that emergency pump#2 has been called into action.

 

[sixdogs]

I'm the OP on this and after the whole discussion, here's the direction I'm leaning.

First, I bought a new Wayne 3/4 HP sump pump because I needed one. Here it is:
Wayne 3/4 HP Submersible Sump Pump-CDU980E - The Home Depot

It has nearly a 5 star rating and pumps with real power.


Then, I plan to order this 12 volt Wayne battery backup.
Wayne 1/3 HP - 12 Volt Battery Backup Sump Pump System-ESP25 - The Home Depot


It also is highly rated and will buy me the time to start the generator. Regarding the generator, my thinking, which could change, is to order a new 3 pt whole house PTO generator since I have a tractor I could leave it on over the winter or hook up quickly other times. I'm already wired for the 50 amp whole house connection so it would be a snap.

I don't want a whole house auto on generator right now so this is the current (pun intended) plan.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm the OP on this and after the whole discussion, here's the direction I'm leaning.

First, I bought a new Wayne 3/4 HP sump pump because I needed one. Here it is:
Wayne 3/4 HP Submersible Sump Pump-CDU980E - The Home Depot



It has nearly a 5 star rating and pumps with real power.


Then, I plan to order this 12 volt Wayne battery backup.
Wayne 1/3 HP - 12 Volt Battery Backup Sump Pump System-ESP25 - The Home Depot


It also is highly rated and will buy me the time to start the generator. Regarding the generator, my thinking, which could change, is to order a new 3 pt whole house PTO generator since I have a tractor I could leave it on over the winter or hook up quickly other times. I'm already wired for the 50 amp whole house connection so it would be a snap.

I don't want a whole house auto on generator right now so this is the current (pun intended) plan.

Glad you found a pump solution.

My only problem with a PTO generator is when the power is out, it is usually because of a natural disaster, like thunderstorms, tornadoes, winter storms, etc... and all of those require my tractor for clean-up. I can't tie it down to a PTO generator. I'd need a 2nd tractor.