Battery backup sump pumps vs. water activated sump pumps… which is more dependable?

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello my name is Jack Milne with Tri-County inspection company in the house Whisperer show the other day via email at hello at tri-countyinspectors.com I was asked to provide comment on battery backup sump pumps versus water actuated sump pump backup systems so as a background primarily here in Bucks County I'm probably across the country homes are being built with some pits the Builder can never guarantee if a house is going to take on water so let's create a pit if need be let's put in a pump and then we can direct this water elsewhere now primary sump pumps typically work great but what happens if we lose power then all of a sudden the pump's not going to work and in another episode we're going to talk about new construction where they now require ground fall protection on the sump pump but again that's a at a later date so a primary sump pump should direct water away from the foundation by at least three to four feet I've seen some homes where you know it goes 8 to 10 to 12 feet away but during the winter months that line can freeze which in essence is going to put water back in the basement and by the way on a sidebar make sure with your homeowners insurance that you do have some pump protection so that God forbid if something does occur and the pump fails if you ruin your carpet or your drywall in your finished basement you have coverage for that and it's pretty cheap so please look into that for me so let's let's play the other card what happens if we do have pump failure years ago we div we were kind of dependent on what we call battery backup sump pump systems in essence it's a marine grade battery in a case with a pump and with an alarm so if this if your primary went off or the battery backup wasn't working properly you were notified the problem is is that battery backup sump pumps require maintenance roughly every three months by putting distilled water in the cells now I had one of those too and literally I kept a gallon of distilled water and a turkey baster close by marked it on my calendar and then I'd fill up those cells the problem with the battery backups is that they're unreliable so if you lose power you don't know if that battery is going to work for four hours or for 10 minutes so if you currently have a battery backup sump pump take the casing off the top of the battery and check your cells but again do not use tap water because that will affect the cells within the battery now let's move forward 10 years okay now they've come out with something called a water actuated sump pump backup system through my friends at U.S supply in Bristol Pennsylvania they were able to let me borrow one yeah and and this is what it looks like so what happens is at your incoming water source they're going to run a three-quarter inch line and connect it here now this still sits into some pit but this is the injector where it pumps the water out but this is the float now the float is going to sit above the existing sump pump now the beauty of this system is that if you lose power you never lose water so for every gallon of of public water that you use you're pumping out two gallons of your sumpit water now the cost of the pump okay is about 170 to 180 dollars which is just about the same cost as a marine grade battery for your battery backup sump pump now two things that come to mind first off make sure that in your sump pit the water is clear okay sometimes you look into some pumps and it's basically a stone bed there's a little bit of mud or muck in the bottom of it the this strainer here has to be in Clear Water not Disturbed water the other thing is that you cannot discharge any sump pump into the sanitary sewer okay except for in the cities now Philadelphia where I'm you know outside of will allow sump pump water to go into the sanitary sewer why because they they regenerate it for future use but in most of the suburbs it's a findable offense of up to about a thousand dollars um and I'd say probably about eight or nine years ago where I live you know there was a knock on the door because they wanted to see where my sump pump was being drawn to so I was able to show them where it went the reason why the municipalities do not want this water to go into the sanitary sewers that they now have to pay to get this water regenerated so they found it ironic that during the dry periods it wasn't a real big issue you know with the um with these regeneration stations but when it rained their numbers went up exponentially so one of my neighbors did good caught that's how I know what the fine was installation costs and I knew that was going to be the next question for a battery backup sump pump system roughly 500 once again because of the battery this pump again about 170 180 but you're looking around the same price of about five hundred dollars now where can this not be used it can't be used if you have a well because if you lose power to your home well this isn't going to work that's where those folks have to go ahead and rely back on the battery back up okay um I would say that if I had a choice for a person I have a generator but if I didn't this is what I'd be going with it's almost foolproof and again it's it's going to sit in the pit it does require some bracing so it doesn't shift left or right and again a three-quarter inch line from everything that I've read shark bites or acceptable connections so you know if you're handy you might be able to do this yourself but if you're not of course a plover can take care of it for you so if you have any questions you like the content please feel free to reach out to me at hello at tri-countyinspectors.com and push the Subscribe button below

Channel: The House Whisperer Show

Views: 7,834

Keywords: Tri-County Inspection Company Inc., Home Inspector, Jack Milne, The House Whisperer Show, Bucks County Real Estate, Philadelphia, Montgomery County PA Real Estate, South Jersey Real Estate, Commercial Property Inspector, Home Improvement, Home Maintenance, sump pumps

Id: BrWNBFhujp0

Length: 6min 54sec (414 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023