I'm struggling with a wet basement and need to verify if my sump pump is kicking on and off at the correct water height, or if changing it will help.

I have a crudely dug sump hole with PVC basin, submersible pump and tethered switch. There is gravel in the bottom of my PVC basin upon which the pump sits, 17" below the basin top. Not sure how high the tethered switch floats from the pump - maybe 6"-8".

I've read you want the pump set to never let the water get past 1 or 2 inches over the top of the foundation drain pipe entering your sump. Problem is I don't have drain pipes as it is an after the fact dug sump hole. All I have is gravel outside my basin through which water seeps.

So how do I figure my correct sump pump float turn on/off height?

 

You will have to eye ball it, if you have water comming in you want the pump to start before it gets near the floor, the 6-8 inches sounds o.k. unless you have a special situation

 

Where are you trying to pump the discharge from the sump into?

Normally, it is through a pipe connected to the sump pump to the exterior, with a check valve to prevent back-flow.

Dick

 

Hi. This type of pump is good because you can set the height for when if comes on. I had a pit never get high enough to come over the lip but always had water in it. I set it to come on for about 10 inches from the top with this type. This was the regular water level but when it rained it would come higher and this worked well. It did not cycle often. Had a battery backup just incase.

(from sump pump install .com

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This type is usually for a dry pit and comes on if water enters. You can use it for a wet pit also but you would need to lift it on some type of blocks and adjust for the correct pump cycle for your application of water height and how fast the pit fills.

(From colemen .com)

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Hope this helps

Mike NJ

 

Yes, I have a check valve and the pump sends it outside to a 4" drain pipe, 50' out to the drainage ditch and downhill.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I will check my level and see about 6"-8" below slab.

I have a dumb question: will lowering the level actually help the entire basement, or just lower it in a localized region around the sump? Just curious if there is conventional wisdom about sumps.

 

You could lower the level but if the water enters the pit faster then the pump can get it out the pump will either stay on all the time or cycle frequently. I would think the more water you can get out from under the slab the better.

If this means anything I remember a house with bad water issues and what they did was dig around the foundation outside the house, They put preferated pipe with stone then trenched with pitch some 50 yards away to a tank with pumps alarms and stuff. The tank then pumped the water out to an area far from the house. They did not know the water table was high because the house was built during dry season. When the rainy season came the water table was above basement slab level(Finish basement multi million $ home) and this was the builders fix. It worked.

Mike NJ