Two Sump Pits - Can they be connected????
#1
01-30-20, 02:44 PM
Two Sump Pits - Can they be connected????
I have two sump pits, each with two pumps, about 20 feet apart. One works quite a bit. We have a high water table and the input is constant. The other, not so much. One advantage of the two pits is that if one stopped working for some reason, I could divert water to the other one. While the overflow might just drain across the floor to the working pump, I wonder if there is an easy way to move the water. I had thought of using a transfer pump, but they are noisy, and may well move more volume than I need. Any thoughts?
PS. When my plumber put in the extra pit, he said that if one stopped running and the pit filled, the excess water would flow under the concrete floor to the other pit. As water likes to take the easiest course (spilling all over the floor) I wonder about this.
Thanks
PS. When my plumber put in the extra pit, he said that if one stopped running and the pit filled, the excess water would flow under the concrete floor to the other pit. As water likes to take the easiest course (spilling all over the floor) I wonder about this.
Thanks
#2
01-30-20, 03:18 PM
Group Moderator
You have four sump pumps there ?
Then that would mean water will not be traveling from one pit to another..... otherwise they would have the same amount of incoming water.
One works quite a bit. We have a high water table and the input is constant. The other, not so much.
Butch Benitez
voted this post useful.
#3
01-30-20, 04:27 PM
Member
otherwise they would have the same amount of incoming water
How are the sumps installed, is one hooked up to the drain field around the foundation and one is just "in the ground"? Is one deeper than the other?
There really isnt enough information to really know how they are, or are not, hooked up to collect your ground water!
Butch Benitez
voted this post useful.
#4
01-31-20, 06:57 AM
You will get reasonably good performance when each pit (sump) is properly connected to the weeping tile system (perimeter drain pipes) as if it were the only pit. Drain tiles coming from both directions need to empty into the pit.
During less wet seasons only one sump pump will run. You can adjust the float switches every month so a different pump starts first, thus equalizing the wear and tear. Except that (suggested starting point) the pump should start when any of the fat pipes dumping into the pit gets covered more than two thirds. If one pump is slower then you will probably get better performance with that pump always starting first. This gives water queued up in the weeping tiles more time to get to the pump and be expelled before the pump stops.
Multiple pits with pumps are most often used (1) when more than one sump pump is needed and they don;t all fit in one pit, and (2) when the house is large enough that despite proper operation of a sump pump, water still seeps up onto the floor on the opposite side of the basement.
Provided that the perimeter drain pipes do not get waterlogged, it is not important that the pit whose pump did not start get emptied. Ideally, when a pump starts, it should keep going until its pit is nearly emptied.
If you get flooding of the basement and need to adjust the pump(s), allow a week before concluding that your adjustment worked or not.
During less wet seasons only one sump pump will run. You can adjust the float switches every month so a different pump starts first, thus equalizing the wear and tear. Except that (suggested starting point) the pump should start when any of the fat pipes dumping into the pit gets covered more than two thirds. If one pump is slower then you will probably get better performance with that pump always starting first. This gives water queued up in the weeping tiles more time to get to the pump and be expelled before the pump stops.
Multiple pits with pumps are most often used (1) when more than one sump pump is needed and they don;t all fit in one pit, and (2) when the house is large enough that despite proper operation of a sump pump, water still seeps up onto the floor on the opposite side of the basement.
Provided that the perimeter drain pipes do not get waterlogged, it is not important that the pit whose pump did not start get emptied. Ideally, when a pump starts, it should keep going until its pit is nearly emptied.
If you get flooding of the basement and need to adjust the pump(s), allow a week before concluding that your adjustment worked or not.
Last edited by AllanJ; 01-31-20 at 07:37 AM.
Butch Benitez
voted this post useful.
#5
01-31-20, 09:10 AM
When my plumber put in the extra pit, he said that if one stopped running and the pit filled, the excess water would flow under the concrete floor to the other pit.
Butch Benitez
voted this post useful.
#6
01-31-20, 11:55 AM
Thanks for all the great info. Very helpful. Just to answer a few questions.
1. One pit is attached to the perimeter drainage system. It is the busy pit.
2. The other pit collects water just from a corner of the house. Not nearly as active.
3. They are roughly level with each other. I think they may be a mild slope towards the sump that collects from the drainage system.
4. The pits seems to be of equal depth
my plumber put two float switches in each pit so I can alternate which pump is going to work that week or month (switches are at slightly different levels). This way, they get a break from all the work.
what I am still wondering is if pumps in one pit failed and I wanted to divert the water to the pit that still worked, if there was a simple solution. We are in a wet area and I have heard horror stories from my neighbours about flooded basements.
1. One pit is attached to the perimeter drainage system. It is the busy pit.
2. The other pit collects water just from a corner of the house. Not nearly as active.
3. They are roughly level with each other. I think they may be a mild slope towards the sump that collects from the drainage system.
4. The pits seems to be of equal depth
my plumber put two float switches in each pit so I can alternate which pump is going to work that week or month (switches are at slightly different levels). This way, they get a break from all the work.
what I am still wondering is if pumps in one pit failed and I wanted to divert the water to the pit that still worked, if there was a simple solution. We are in a wet area and I have heard horror stories from my neighbours about flooded basements.
#7
01-31-20, 12:02 PM
Not an expert but each pump is removing the water from that pit. The water in each pit is from whatever drains into that pit and not related to the pump or switch. You seem to be asking how to get water from one pit into the other pit when each one is plumbed into fixed drain lines. Without using additional pumps or allowing the pit to overflow, the water is only going to enter the pit it was plumbed to drain into.
- Peter
- Peter
#8
01-31-20, 01:58 PM
Member
what I am still wondering is if pumps in one pit failed and I wanted to divert the water to the pit that still worked, if there was a simple solution.
If not then they act independently and you will not be able to switch between them!
I have heard horror stories from my neighbours about flooded basements
Butch Benitez
voted this post useful.
#9
01-31-20, 02:49 PM
When you add an underfloor link from the corner, less active, pit to the nearest point on the perimeter drain system then water can migrate between the two pits in case one pump fails.
The migration would not be tremendously rapid. If only one pump is functional, it will probably empty out its own pit and stop before all of the water that could migrate from the other pit has done so. The migration will continue but the time before the pump starts again won't be as long as expected. (It is not necessary for all of the water down to the bottom of one pit to migrate to the other).
Even with the ability of water to migrate to the other pit, if any of the drain pipe ends dumping into either pit should become completely submerged then the chances are very much increased that water will come out from the foundation wall somewhere onto the floor.
,
The migration would not be tremendously rapid. If only one pump is functional, it will probably empty out its own pit and stop before all of the water that could migrate from the other pit has done so. The migration will continue but the time before the pump starts again won't be as long as expected. (It is not necessary for all of the water down to the bottom of one pit to migrate to the other).
Even with the ability of water to migrate to the other pit, if any of the drain pipe ends dumping into either pit should become completely submerged then the chances are very much increased that water will come out from the foundation wall somewhere onto the floor.
,
Last edited by AllanJ; 01-31-20 at 03:09 PM.
Butch Benitez
voted this post useful.
#11
02-01-20, 06:14 AM
Think of your setup as being analogous to a high school bathroom-
The perimeter drain sump is like the drain at the bottom of the sink.
The groundwater drain sump is like the drain in the center of the floor, it is there to catch anything that overflows.
The perimeter drain sump is like the drain at the bottom of the sink.
The groundwater drain sump is like the drain in the center of the floor, it is there to catch anything that overflows.
