My sump pump pipe outdoors is 48 inches below grade. My sump kept running, but water was not leaving the pit. Come to find out the outdoor pipe is frozen. What do you do?
My sump pump pipe outdoors is 48 inches below grade. My sump kept running, but water was not leaving the pit. Come to find out the outdoor pipe is frozen. What do you do?
when it's happened to me, I've switched over to a "emergency" hose I have coiled up in the garage ... pretty hard to thaw out a sump line when the ground is as frozen as this year.
it's a shame that common sense isn't
Same thing happened to us this year. Connected a hose to the pump and ran it out a basement window.
Mine did the same thing. we have a floating basement type system. The ditch around the floor leading to a pit. It was pretty much a slap together job from the previous owners and it needed revamping anyways. Here's what i did, Besides putting in a real sump pit other than just the foot deep hole that was there [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] I ran 1/2 PVC off the pump up 6' then did a 180 back down 1' then a 90 and out the block wall another 90 outside and then 40' at about 10 degree drop to the end of the house just above ground level. Lagging the straight lenght of pipe to the block wall about every 4' I have a walkout basement and the whole back wall of basment is above ground for the most part. The pipe cant freeze because no water can sit in it. Dont know if i explained that very well though [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] But its been working so far and would have been froze again by now if left like it was. Most of my problem was the pit was so shallow and small that no water was being pumped out untill it was about floor level anyways. Not the way a floating slab basement is suppose to work i think. Ive cut the water table shorter by 1-1/2 feet under my house with this setup [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] I also think the frozen line making the pump run messed up the on-off switch on my pump. It heated up a few times, then started failing. I put a new switch on the pump and bought a new pump to have a back-up just in case. Its gonna die when ya need it most [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] With this new setup my pump doesnt run as much either. We get a big melt or rain it runs a couple days then quits because im getting the water out sooner now. One less worrie for me [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Thanks for the info. Common sense solution to the problem.
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