Sump pump...

We bought a house up on Highview Trail over the summer...love it up here. Over the last month or so, i finally realized i had never heard my sump pump run in the 6+ months we'd been there (except for when the home inspector tested it). My neighbor, on the other hand, is an hourly occurrence...always. I was curious why mine never went off...especially since the A/C units' condensation lines drain into it, plus the furnace humidifier, and assuming the drain at the bottom of the outside stairwell from my basement up to the backyard.

Last week i finally got curious enough to pop open the top to see what was going on. Water was in there...but not more than about 1/2 way up. I finally figured how to trigger the thing--and BAM--front yard was nice and wet. Then it started...almost hourly, that thing would fire off another gallon or two of water into the side yard. That was fine---except yesterday i got home, and it was unusually dry looking on the side. I went downstairs...same thing, the well was about 1/2 full--so i gave it a nudge, and now it's been going off ever since.

Just wondering if anyone else had issues where the sump pump just stops working until you give the float a nudge to re-trigger it? We have a warranty purchased at closing, so i'm not worried about if they have to replace it. My concern is that when they come to look at it, they will say "it's working fine". Curious if anyone else has experienced issues with sump pumps up in this area.

Another curiosity of mine--why do these things run so much? Right now, my humidifier isn't draining enough water to justify an hourly explosion of water beside my driveway. Sitting at the top of ridgeway, i would think water would roll on down the hill. I guess that's why i'm not a Civil Engineer

 

We had a switch start to go bad, pressure type. Better to bite the bullet and replace it, we used a float type. Even if the insurance does not cover it's only $20 or so.

I also added a monitor (google waterbug) and a camera to send a pic if ours ever gets above a certain level.