What Is A Battery Back Up For A Sump Pump

Mechanical devices generally are thought to be prone to physical breakdown. Although sump pumps are mechanical devices, their manufacturing and specification improvements over decades, have culminated in their durability and ruggedness. Although they can stop working due to mechanical breakdown, this is rare. More typically their failure to operate is attributable to electrical utility grid malfunction. The irony of the timing of sump pump failure is that it is most likely to occur when the sump pump is needed most – during a thunderstorm, which is when there is the greatest occurrence of power failure. The best way to make sure your home is protected from a sump pump failure is to install a battery backup for it. A battery backup system is a group of components configured to ensure that sump pit pumping action is always available.

Sump pumps are installed in sump pits at a level below the basement floor, so that they may evacuate inflowing water prior to the commencement of basement floor flooding. A sump pump battery backup system may protect your basement from becoming water damaged. Even though utility power cannot be depended upon to be ever present, your sump pump battery backup system will automatically activate your sump pump during utility power failure.

There are two different approaches for sump pump battery backup which are available to the consumer in today’s market. The first is a kit which includes a battery in a case combined with a control box and an auxiliary DC powered pump which derives its power from the battery. The battery case/control box is located in the vicinity of the sump pit while a DC secondary pump (auxiliary) is installed into the sump pit and is intended to “kick in” when the main pump is overloaded or fails. This is the most common type of system available. Its only advantage is that the user derives some pump redundancy via the secondary pump; however its drawbacks far outweigh the latter. The first shortcoming of such an installation is that volumes in certain sump pits are inadequate to accommodate the secondary pump. The second and main weakness stems from the fact that during a deluge, the DC secondary pump generally does not end up complementing the work of the main pump but rather substituting for the main pump as it goes out of commission during power failure. DC secondary pumps have approximately one quarter of the pumping capacity of a 1/3 horsepower main pump. This causes a grave situation, particularly in low lying areas where the maximum pumping capacity of the main pump is required to keep pace with water evacuation needs. With the low pumping capacity of only the secondary pump such a basement is doomed to be inundated.

The second approach relies upon the fact, that electricity failure is by far the primary culprit when it comes to a basement flood. There is a fully automatic uninterruptible power system manufactured that is specifically tailored for sump pumps. The Pump Sentry is a power converter/control system designed for wall mounting. It is used in tandem with a battery or battery bank. This system overcomes the disadvantages of the first approach, in that it requires no space in the sump pit, and is easily installable. Most importantly, it enables the main sump pump to function at full capacity during a power outage. Another excellent quality of this system is that it will keep a sump pump backed up for periods of time extending from a few hours to a few days, depending on the size of the 12 Volt DC battery bank with which it is allied. During periods when power is available, the system will fully recharge the battery bank.

You can easily protect against power failure to basement pumps. In addition, you will benefit from a sump pump backup system if you often leave home for extended periods of time. Battery backup sump pump systems will give you peace of mind knowing that your home is safe even while you are away.