Since ancient times, moving water from one place to another has been the main concern of mankind.
Some equipment was developed to supply water to the King’s fountain, drain water from the mines to work safely, and extract water from deep holes for drinking.
This task was so important that the modernized version of the well pump used in Zimbabwe was regarded as a national treasure and was engraved on a postage stamp in 1997. The basic principles of screw pump design created by the Greek mathematician Archimedes are still in use today.
Recently, in the Midwest of the United States, water pumps have been used to drain the soil around our underground fruit cellars, often referred to as “basements.”
The basement serves as a convenient way to store food and rainwater. If occasional rain causes water to accumulate “under the stairs”, it is not a real inconvenience for dirty floors.
As we begin to use space for more complex tasks, it becomes important to consider keeping moisture and active water out of the basement. Before backfilling, we started to “protect against moisture” by applying tar on the exterior wall. Then, we started laying tile pipes around the bottom of the foundation to collect the active water in the soil.
The water is then transferred by gravity to a ditch or pit or puddle in the basement floor. Then pump out the water collected in the sink and away from the house.
Around 1849, an American company called Goulds cast the first all-metal pump, and in the late 1940s, we began to install the pump in the sink in the basement. Over the years, two basic types have emerged; a base type with a motor mounted above the potential water level of a sump and diving device, and the motor is mounted in a housing at the bottom of the sump. Both are activated by a float that triggers the pump in response to the rise in the water level in the tank.
Vertical pumps and submersible pumps usually have an impeller at the bottom of the device to draw water into the vertical discharge pipe. The pipe then diverts the water away from the foundation outside the house. Mounted on the pipeline and above the ground is a check valve designed for vertical applications. When the pump stops running, it can prevent the water in the pipeline from washing back to the sump.
Remember, water is inert and it always follows the path of least resistance. If rain or melted snow is “easy” to move into the underground hole where the basement is located, it will do so.
On a 2,000-square-foot roof, an inch of rain will spill nearly 1,300 gallons of water on the bottom of your home. This does not take into account the ground around your home, so you must install a reliable pump system in the tank to discharge the groundwater. During wet periods, the fluid pressure of the water builds up in the surrounding soil, bending the basement walls and raising the basement floor.
So what type of pump should you use? Guys have always preferred high-quality submersible pumps. Even under the pressure of repeated cycles, the operating temperature of the submersible will be lower, and the motor with a lower operating temperature will last longer. This is one of the reasons why we use submersible pumps in water wells.
The rated flow of a pump is usually “flow”, which indicates how many gallons of water the device can move in one minute or one hour. Higher-quality and higher-priced pumps will have larger capacities, better motors, and higher-quality parts.
For our family, these guys usually default to an all-metal housing, a 1/3-½ horsepower motor, and a flow rate of 3,000-4,000 GPH. Too much for many applications? Maybe, but this is where we don’t want to underestimate demand.
Although there are many great brands there, we like the Zoeller, Gould, Wayne and Superior brands, which cost about US$250-400. Excellent plumbing companies that provide services to metropolitan areas such as Ferndale’s Waterwork Plumbing and Zplumberz usually specify the high-quality, durable pumps we describe.
How do you determine the capacity and required flow rate? The typical plastic tank used today has a diameter of 18 inches, which means that there is approximately 1 gallon of water per inch of water depth in the tank. If the water in the tank rises at a rate of about 1 inch per minute, you collect 60 gallons per hour.
Another way to understand the required capacity is to track the pump cycle for more than an hour. If the pump circulates at intervals of more than five minutes during a heavy water event, this is considered “normal”; a cycle period of less than 5 minutes is “high” water, and less than 2 minutes is “very high”.
A good pump design will integrate an integrated “leg” at the bottom to make the impeller separate from the bottom of the cylinder. This minimizes the possibility of impeller aging or even clogging caused by small animals such as fine sand, rocks, and even rats.
What if the main pump fails? Should you have a backup system? Guys say “yes” to use one or both of the two main backups, either water-powered or battery-powered.
If the power supply fails, you can buy the main pump with integrated battery, or install a second pump in the same tank with rechargeable battery power.
Hydropower plants rely on municipal water supply systems that usually survive power outages because they rely to a large extent (but not limited to) gravity to keep water flowing. These can be purchased at 1-2 efficiency, so that the pump will draw 2 gallons of water from the tank to use 1 gallon of “city” water.
Many backup systems today integrate some type of alarm notification, ranging from audible alarms located at the pump to applications that connect directly to your cellular device for remote monitoring.
The sump and pump; another “out of sight and out of mind” system is very important in your home. Rediscover yours today and check with our plumbing professionals on Insideoutsideguys.com.
For housing advice, etc., please listen to the Inside Outdoor Guys program on News/Talk 760, WJR-AM every Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to noon, or contact us through insideoutsideguys.com.
Post time: Sep-10-2021
