Thursday, July 8, 2010

Remotely Activated Sump Pump 07 08 2010

Remotely Activated Sump Pump 07 08 2010

A sump pump can save you from tens of thousands if not millions of dollars of loss in wet weather. When and wherein basement flooding becomes prevalent. Do you even know if yours is in working order? They should be tested or triggered by a switch every so often. The easy way to test them is to reach down and gently pull up on the float rod until the motor switch is activated. Make sure yours is plugged into a GFCI outlet.

If yours is located in a closet like mine is or behind a wall or items of storage chances are it is not looked at much. Here is the solution I invented that allows me to periodically the sump pump from outside the closet. I am going to have to describe it as best I can because censorship from someone is preventing me from loading pictures to my blogs.

In effect two eyelet screws mounted in the stud in the closet ceiling serve as pulleys themselves and bastioning points. A small pound test fishing line is tied to the top of the float rod. It is small test so that if it were accidently jarred the mechanism of the sump pump would be less likely to be broken. From the top of the float rod the line is threaded tied to a yellow ¼ nylon rope that has little resistance in terms of friction. The yellow rope is threaded through the eyelets and out a hole in the closet above its door. A brass butterfly knob from an old door handle serve as the end of the pull rope. There is a counterweight on the inside portion of the yellow rope where it hangs in the closet. Like the spring on the pull rope of a lawn mower or outboard motor it assures rope position at rest, and also serves as a stop. If you did not have an internal stop you could potentially break the sump pump. The brass handle is stylish and bares a sense of purpose to the project, as well as being just the right weight.

You need light fishing line cleanly tied to the very top of the float rod so that the float rises normally without resistance to your new apparatus. Place a couple little flags on the fishing line to serve as a reminder of its presence by wrapping two pieces of colorful duck tape around the line and folded back onto itself. Serving as a warning not to shove it or jar it and potentially break the plastic switch or other parts on your sump pump. When placing storage items in and out of your closet.

This system has allowed me to safely test the sump pump periodically and easily. Today was rainy and power was to be cut to our block for electric service upgrades. The first thing I did this morning was flush any water in the sump pump reservoir so that the empty basin could collect and gather its full potential while it is unable to discharge. They do not work without electricity and power failures to your local grid are often the case during storms.

If you have an idea of the proper amperage that would be required to run your sump pump you can buy an inverter for about less than fifty dollars that in turn you could hook up to a car battery removed from you care, Inverters have standard three prong electric outlets on them and in this case convert DC current to AC. This would power your sump pump in a developing emergency. And indeed some people buy portable gas/electric generators for emergency needs, such as this.

Most of the neighbors on my block have never really addressed the issue of basement flooding. The rich Investment Banker that lives down the block did not ever check to assure that his was working and when he needed it, he found out it wasn’t. The same is true of the Criminal Defense lawyer that lives right next to him. There was some nice Curb Wood left at the curb after the rain flooded basements in Whitefish Bay that time. See My blog CurbWoodArt for a description of what that is. The blog is listed under my index.

God Bless Those Who Think

Thomas Paul Murphy

Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy