Hi group,

I moved into a house built in '85 and have had to fix/replace a few things. I woke up this morning to the sound of the sump pump running. I went to the basement this morning and I can hear the motor running. The well isn't full - so its not pump water out but I can hear the humming of the motor running. Also the water in the well is hot and I see steam rising. This hasn't happened before - when it shuts off, I usually don't hear anything. I'm unplugging the unit for a little while so the motor doesn't burn out. I haven't looked closely at the unit itself to know what type it is - not sure if its the original one or not. We did recently have some very cold weather - don't know if that contributes to the issue in any way or not. Also - even when the sump pump is functioning, is it normal to have some water remain in the well? Maybe this has to do with the level/height at which the pump was installed?

Thanks for any guidance you all can provide.

Carl

 

Does the pump have a visible float? If you push the float down manually, does the pump shut off?

It is possible that the outlet pipe has frozen outside so the pump is unable to empty the pit and, since the water level hasn't gone down far enough, the pump keeps going. This reason is less likely because if the outlet were blocked then the pit would probably have overflowed by now.

The water is hot because the pump has heated up from running so long assuming the pump motor is normally submerged, not on a pedestal holding it above the water.

 

Thanks for the response AllanJ. I pushed the float down this morning (may not have pushed down far enough - not sure) and the motor did not shut off. Its not been nearly as cold the last couple of days .. although I wouldn't completely rule out a frozen outlet pipe. Your assessment of the hot water is what I was thinking too - it wasn't smoke but steam. Since the pit isn't full, I've unplugged the unit for a while to allow the motor to cool off - so it doesn't burn out from constantly running. Whatever it is, I think it just happened last night - I didn't hear that noise before.

 

Pretty common for the float switch to go bad.
Do you happen to have under floor heating or are the water lines run through the slab?
Just thinking of a plan B if it's not the pump getting hot.
That water should be getting cooler within in an hour if the pumps not running and no more steam.

 

I'm pretty certain the water lines are run through the slab (as opposed to under floor heating). I'll check the water in a bit to verify if it has cooled down - pretty sure that's the issue (for the water being hot). I'm really wondering if its the float switch that turns the unit on and off ...

 

Weird. I got home yesterday and the sump pump motor was not running. I pulled the float up and it came on. I also poured some buckets of water in the pit and it worked then too. Not sure what happened with it two nights ago ...