What is the Most Common Reason for Sump Pump Failure?
You have probably heard about a sump pump and its importance to a building before. Sump pump installation can go a long way in preventing water from damaging your property and belongings. But a sump pump is not quite different from other appliances in your home as it can also have some issues.
Although various reasons could be responsible for sump pump failure, some reasons are more common than others. So, what is the most common reason for sump pump failure?
Power failure
Without mincing words, power failure or outage is the most common reason behind sump pump failure. When power fails or goes off, your sump pump may be able to collect water and send it to the wastewater system for some periods. However, after a while, it will stop working; hence, your basement and other crawlspaces will be flooded with lots of water. Over time, your home may experience water damage.
It is worthwhile to note that heavy rainstorms, hail, winds, lightning strikes, and flooding are the major causes of the power outage or failure. In some situations, your sump pump may experience power failure even if other parts of your home don’t lose power.
As your basement is flooded, the circuit breaker or another component of the pump could also stop working. In other cases, adverse weather conditions may cause a power outage in your locality for an extended period.
How to deal with power failure
The best way to deal with sump pump failure is to prevent it from happening. You don’t want to wait until a power outage has happened before you start looking for a way to deal with it. Therefore, you must be proactive in coping with power failure.
· Install service entrance surge protection device
During sump pump installation, you should also consider installing a service entrance surge protection device. With this device, a power surge will not destroy any component of your pump. Hence, your sump pump will continue functioning after a power surge.
· Install a sump pump alarm
A sump pump alarm is a tool that alerts you when your sump pump is no longer working. This alarm helps you to take timely action and reduce the risk of water damage. You should think about installing this alarm during the sump pump installation.
· Have a battery-powered or hydraulic sump pump as a backup
Another essential way to deal with power failure or outage is to install a battery-powered sump pump as a backup. Since such backup doesn’t rely on an electrical source, it will still be able to send out water from your basement even if power fails.
As an alternative to a battery-powered sump pump, you may want to install a hydraulic sump pump. Since water pressure powers the pump, electric failure will have no impact on it.
Apart from power outage/failure, other common causes of sump pump failure include poor installation, wrong sump pump size, old age, and switch issues. Lack of maintenance, overworked pump, blocked or frozen discharge lines, and product defects can also lead to sump pump failure.
