# Installed 5 sump pumps today



## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

After a long drought, Kansas City was hit with a tremendous amount of rain over the last 40 hours or so. I have never had so many calls for sump pumps. I had to turn down 3 other calls because I didn't have any more pumps. I even checked the box stores and they were all sold out of pumps and check valves. There was some hack about 10 paces ahead of me that got the last one at Blowes I wanted to snatch it from him. 

Anyways, lots of flooded basements in Kansas City; I knew I was going to have to work this weekend.


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## Plumbbum0203 (Dec 14, 2011)

My uncle lives in kc and bought one at westlake. Here in st Louis we have had steady rain but not what we thought we would get. Bought 12 extra pumps and still have all 12.


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## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

Figured this would be a good thing to blog about. Which we should all be doing, in order to get more traffic to our websites. 

Busy day for installing sump pumps in Overland Park.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

plumberkc said:


> Figured this would be a good thing to blog about. Which we should all be doing, in order to get more traffic to our websites.
> 
> Busy day for installing sump pumps in Overland Park.


 You preffered the water back up pump??? Are they allowed ??


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

rjbphd said:


> You preffered the water back up pump??? Are they allowed ??


I know I ripped out more water backup pumps than a little bit. I have personaly seen one that caused the basement to flood, the plastic body where the water supply attaches to cracked and was spraying water all over.

I been installing the PHCC Pro2400 by Glentronics for many years and have had very little issues with them. http://www.a-archer.com/sump-ejector-pumps.htm


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

indianapolis was supposed to get the brunt of the flooding and I had bought 10 zoeller pumps on thursday... we have had a nasty drought here all summer and it would have been a good douseing
Originaly it was gonna be up to 7 inches, 
then yesterday it was down graded to maybe 2-4 inches...
but now we are somehow gonna miss all the rain......I dont think we are even gonna get a half inch of rain today... 

they cancelled a bunch of parades and a bunch of outside events..... 

there is a HUGE rib festivle going on downtown that they did not cancel...it went on rain or shine... So I think I am giong down there today to sample the ribs.....

If I go down there, that ought to make it start to rain:yes::yes:


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## Advanced plum (Aug 10, 2012)

Sorry some of you arnt getting any rain yet but im sure glad we got what we did over the last two days . Only complaint i have is it has washed my road road out and no call for sump pumps yet


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## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

SewerRatz said:


> I know I ripped out more water backup pumps than a little bit. I have personaly seen one that caused the basement to flood, the plastic body where the water supply attaches to cracked and was spraying water all over.
> 
> I been installing the PHCC Pro2400 by Glentronics for many years and have had very little issues with them. http://www.a-archer.com/sump-ejector-pumps.htm


Three of the basements that had water in them had both a regular sump pump and a battery backup sump. I think that the water powered setup is a little better. Yes, it is plastic but it you install it right you can keep it off the bottom of the sump pit. It seems like most of the pumps that fail are sitting in a pit full of debris. 

I'll look into these PHCC Pro 2400's. The backups that I have to replace are usually Watchdog units, that were probably purchased from Lowes...:no:


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

starting to spit here now...
we might get an 1/8 of an inch today:laughing::laughing:

most of it is gonna meander over to cincinatti and go 
up through ohio and kentucky

Those basement Watch dog pumps are dog crap...if the pumps dont fail
the customers have long forgotten to put water in the batteries. 

we only like to install
the Aquanot II units cause they are dependable for about 10 years out.

those pro units are junk too. we have torn out a lot of them..


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Watchdog battery pumps and PHHC pumps are made by same company....


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## HSI (Jun 3, 2011)

Master Mark said:


> indianapolis was supposed to get the brunt of the flooding and I had bought 10 zoeller pumps on thursday... we have had a nasty drought here all summer and it would have been a good douseing
> Originaly it was gonna be up to 7 inches,
> then yesterday it was down graded to maybe 2-4 inches...
> but now we are somehow gonna miss all the rain......I dont think we are even gonna get a half inch of rain today...
> ...


Don't forget to wash your truck before you go. That should make the rain come for sure. Lol


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

HSI said:


> Don't forget to wash your truck before you go. That should make the rain come for sure. Lol


its been spitting all morning, but it looks to be over now at 1.15 pm... 
Maybe we got a half inch... but thats probably gonna be all ..


we decided to stay home and make some ribs ourselves:laughing:


looks like another wave of sprinkles is comming through again at 1.45

whooopiee..............


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

The PHCC Pro2400 is made by Electronics the same folks that make the basement watchdog. I have found them to be very good units compared to the Watchdog.

As for the Aquanot systems I have had dozens with dead chargers, dead batteries, and faulty switches. If Aquanot could do an alarm instead of LEDs to let the owner now the battery is not charged, or needs maintenance, and runs a self test on the pump I would be happy to install them.


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## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

rjbphd said:


> Watchdog battery pumps and PHHC pumps are made by same company....


Just because the same company makes two different product doesn't mean they are the same thing. Fixtures are a great example of this.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

Now if you want to install the best sump pump ever install a Tramco http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=28 and install their battery back up motor Its a 24VDC motor attached to a through shaft of the A/C motor personaly one of the best pump systems out there, as long as money is no object. http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=25


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## 130 PLUMBER (Oct 22, 2009)

SewerRatz said:


> Now if you want to install the best sump pump ever install a Tramco http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=28 and install their battery back up motor Its a 24VDC motor attached to a through shaft of the A/C motor personaly one of the best pump systems out there, as long as money is no object. http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=25


 

Yup, your pretty much guarantee 30 years of trouble free performance:yes::yes:


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## deerslayer (Mar 29, 2012)

SewerRatz said:


> Now if you want to install the best sump pump ever install a Tramco http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=28 and install their battery back up motor Its a 24VDC motor attached to a through shaft of the A/C motor personaly one of the best pump systems out there, as long as money is no object. http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=25


Nice pumps. What do they go for?


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## 130 PLUMBER (Oct 22, 2009)

Also Weil pumps, the life expected for Weil pump is 15 years of trouble free performance


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## 130 PLUMBER (Oct 22, 2009)

deerslayer said:


> Nice pumps. What do they go for?


 
I think they are around $1,200.00.


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## deerslayer (Mar 29, 2012)

130 PLUMBER said:


> Also Weil pumps, the life expected for Weil pump is 15 years of trouble free performance


The last weil I seen was put in right after WWII. I was called because the pump wasn't pumping enough! Looked at it for quite a bit before I realized it was spinning backwards, an electrician had changed the original motor a wk before they called us. Great pumps or at least they were years ago!


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## 130 PLUMBER (Oct 22, 2009)

deerslayer said:


> The last weil I seen was put in right after WWII. I was called because the pump wasn't pumping enough! Looked at it for quite a bit before I realized it was spinning backwards, an electrician had changed the original motor a wk before they called us. Great pumps or at least they were years ago!


 
Just for the record i just installed 2 sump pumps a couple of weeks ago in a church. My cost was around $8ish.00 per pump


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

130 PLUMBER said:


> Just for the record i just installed 2 sump pumps a couple of weeks ago in a church. My cost was around $8ish.00 per pump


I did one for a church a few years back. Had two brand new Weil 4" upright by 8' tall pumps made up. What I love is the fact you can call Weil and give them the serial number of the pump and they will tell you when they where installed, and are able to build exact replacements. The church p[umps where 58 years old and have not been serviced in the last 20 years. No oil was added to the oil cups due to the original maintenance man passed and the new guy had no idea. The pumps back then ran me around $6ish.00 each.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*nice pumps*



SewerRatz said:


> Now if you want to install the best sump pump ever install a Tramco http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=28 and install their battery back up motor Its a 24VDC motor attached to a through shaft of the A/C motor personaly one of the best pump systems out there, as long as money is no object. http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=25


 
those look real nice , but they appear so large 
it makes me wonder wether they would acutally work out 
ok in a normal home installation... with a small sump pit with 
only enough room for barely one pump or in a pit with a radon lid sealed down....

what do they cost for the whole package??



it dont matter what you install.... if the home owner is a moron 
or a pencl pusher who lives in a suit his whole life... its really only a 
matter of time before they forget to put water in the batteries.......

we install the jel batteries and have gotten about 5 years out of them......
of course what the home owner does to service stuff 4 years down the 
road is another story:yes: 

we probably ougt to offer a service maintaince package on 
the Aquanos, because I doubt anyone ever does yearly maintaince


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

The sump pump in the picture does look large but will fit in a standard sump pump pit. If they do have an undersized pit, I bet that is one of the problems they have with flooding, and them going through pumps in a short time. Undersized pits during a good rain makes a pump short cycle which will cause any submersible A/C pump to fail.

Nice thing with the Tramco is they will custom build the pump to fit your pit. Last I checked the Pump, with the Battery backup system costs around $3200


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

SewerRatz said:


> The sump pump in the picture does look large but will fit in a standard sump pump pit. If they do have an undersized pit, I bet that is one of the problems they have with flooding, and them going through pumps in a short time. Undersized pits during a good rain makes a pump short cycle which will cause any submersible A/C pump to fail.
> 
> Nice thing with the Tramco is they will custom build the pump to fit your pit. Last I checked the Pump, with the Battery backup system costs around $3200


 That's so true of what Sewer Ratz said... I would put in a sewer ejector sized pit for surface water to get alittle longer pump running time. As well for more room for 2nd pump in the same pit. There's no code for pit sizing since its not 'plumbing' on storm drainage except that the upper pit lip must be above the finished grade which I think its stupid.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

rjbphd said:


> That's so true of what Sewer Ratz said... I would put in a sewer ejector sized pit for surface water to get alittle longer pump running time. As well for more room for 2nd pump in the same pit. There's no code for pit sizing since its not 'plumbing' on storm drainage except that the upper pit lip must be above the finished grade which I think its stupid.


I have torn out more than I can count undersized sump pump pits. Some people think that if they install a deeper pit but keep it narrow (18") will make a difference. Not with a standard automatic submersible pump like the Zoeller M-53 or M-98 Or even the Hydromatic with its standard switches. 

I explain to them with a deeper pit you need an adjustable switch, so you can raise the turn on level. Most automatic pumps turn on around 8". With an adjustable switch they can raise the turn on level which will allow the pump to run a little longer, and stay off longer since it will take the pit that much longer to fill up to the higher level.

Now if they have their heart set on using a stock automatic pump like the M-53, or a D-A-1 then they need to put in a wider pit which will allow more water to fill the pit and give the pumps longer run and rest times. Buried behind me in my bookcase is an old Zoeller book that tells you how to properly size a sump pump pit. I will try to dig it out sometime soon and post what it has to say. It deals with figuring out what the 100 year rain fall is for the area, square footage of the property and house.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

SewerRatz said:


> I have torn out more than I can count undersized sump pump pits. Some people think that if they install a deeper pit but keep it narrow (18") will make a difference. Not with a standard automatic submersible pump like the Zoeller M-53 or M-98 Or even the Hydromatic with its standard switches.
> 
> I explain to them with a deeper pit you need an adjustable switch, so you can raise the turn on level. Most automatic pumps turn on around 8". With an adjustable switch they can raise the turn on level which will allow the pump to run a little longer, and stay off longer since it will take the pit that much longer to fill up to the higher level.
> 
> Now if they have their heart set on using a stock automatic pump like the M-53, or a D-A-1 then they need to put in a wider pit which will allow more water to fill the pit and give the pumps longer run and rest times. Buried behind me in my bookcase is an old Zoeller book that tells you how to properly size a sump pump pit. I will try to dig it out sometime soon and post what it has to say. It deals with figuring out what the 100 year rain fall is for the area, square footage of the property and house.


 Yes,yes... not only that, some armchair engineer will tell them the deeper pit will get the water table down... not with the static water table.. so they ended up with putting blocks to keep the pump from pumping out a 'river'. I say put in wider pit and use sewage pump switch for long pump running time.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

rjbphd said:


> Yes,yes... not only that, some armchair engineer will tell them the deeper pit will get the water table down... not with the static water table.. so they ended up with putting blocks to keep the pump from pumping out a 'river'. * I say put in wider pit and use sewage pump switch for long pump running time.*


Good advice there...
Too many systems end up in the river running almost continuously...
When installation a couple of inches higher yields a dry basement and infrequent operation.


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## TallCoolOne (Dec 19, 2010)

Bunch of Yankee talks about Sump Pumps and basements.

Never seen a basement in my life.....


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

SewerRatz said:


> Now if you want to install the best sump pump ever install a Tramco http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=28 and install their battery back up motor Its a 24VDC motor attached to a through shaft of the A/C motor personaly one of the best pump systems out there, as long as money is no object. http://www.tramcopump.com/ResidentialDetails.cfm?ProdID=25


Good stuff there...
I worked on a Tramco Duplex Lift Station that had quit after not being touched for many years...
The alternating float system was screwed up, and one of the check valves was shot, so the running pump was recirculating and restarting until it went out on reset from too many starts too frequently...
I shut down the pump with the bad check, closed the valve, and they were limping along fine until we got the new 4" check valve in and fixed the alternating float system...

Definitely good old school built stuff...:thumbup:


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