Sump Pumps, Manchester, North West

Consumer advice on the selection of sump pump systems:

Trace Basement Systems specialise in the installation and maintenance of sump pumps in Manchester, North West England and further afield.

Where basements and cellars are concerned, sump pumps are commonly employed as part of a ‘drained protection’ waterproofing system, which protects a space by collecting, controlling and removing penetrating ground-water.  Very simplistically, such systems employ three main components: drainage channels which collect the water, membranes which isolate the internal environment from damp wall/floor substrates, and finally the sump pump system itself, which removes water from the basement or cellar. Removal of water is critical to the protection provided by such a system, because if water is not removed, then flooding will occur during periods of groundwater penetration.  It is because of this consideration that the sump pump system and its reliability, is critical in the production of successful waterproofing systems.  So if we understand why reliable water removal is a priority, what do we need to consider when selecting sump pumps, and in making sure that they will continue to protect in the long term?

Example of a Trace installation where the system is left visible:

Example of a hidden sump pump system in a Manchester property:

Well, reliability is a result  of many factors, but we would advise that you consider the following advice:

The one pump system:
Firstly, let’s consider a simple sump pump system including a chamber or ‘sump liner’, with a single mains electricity powered pump installed within it.  Such pumps are usually operated by a float switch which turns the pump on and off as water levels rise and fall within the sump chamber, this removing water and therefore protecting the basement.

There are limitations on the reliability of such systems because there is no form of back-up protection, either against pump failure, or against power cuts which may seldom occur depending on your locality, but when power cuts do happen this is often during periods of bad weather, which is exactly when you need your pump to be operational.  As a result of this we install very few sump pumps with this configuration, although it is an option in spaces where the provision of lesser protection is reasonable.

As a consumer I would note the following:  It is a fact of life that basement & cellar conversion work, as with any work, may be competed for on the basis of price sometimes at the expense of quality, and one such way of keeping the cost down is to price for a single pump system (with no battery back-up protection), then showing the battery back-up as an option, providing an explanation of the risk in writing so that clients are made fully aware.

This is fine in theory because ‘balancing cost vs risk’ is a client’s prerogative, however it is not in our opinion best practice, since clients are unlikely to appreciate the implications of an issue in a converted basement, and in our experience regret taking the cheap option when failure occurs.

An example of this is the photo right of a basement in the North West. Note that there is a single pump with a lever-arm float switch, and also a second float switch (a float on a flexible cable) which trigers a high level alarm.

When we identified that there was no battery back-up protection, the homeowner recounted his experience of an issue with the pump, whereby it tripped out the circuit breaker (RCD) with the alarm sounding when water levels rose. 

So, he reset the circuit breaker and the pump turned back on, only for the breaker to trip out again a minute later.  In order to prevent the basement from flooding, the homeowner had to stay up ALL night, resetting the circuit breaker.  If the designers/installers had included a battery back-up system, this would not have happened.

Battery Back-up Pumps:
So, as alluded to above, battery back-up systems are included within a sump pump system to protect in the event of a power cut occurring.  Where the consequences of failure are great these are in our opinion, a necessity.

Again, from a consumer standpoint there are still some things to consider when looking at the protection that a given system will provide to you. 

Firstly, we would always advise that you appraise the performance of the system because not all sump pumps are equal.  Our standard battery back-up system that we employ will pump 7,500 litres per hour at a 2.4m head, up to a total of approx. 45,000 litres, using a single battery.  Some systems will pump as little as 9,000 litres on a single battery, which could be the difference between a dry and a flooded basement.

Photo right: A colleague in the USA needed to drain his swimming pool and used our battery back-up system to achieve this.  Note that the pipework runs to an 8ft head which is fairly typical in their basements.

We have also seen literature advertising that battery back-up system will run continuously for 90 minutes, whereas our system will run continuously for over six hours at the stated rate. Note: Systems typically cycle rather than running continuously, which means that protection is provided for longer periods of time.

Another point of importance is understanding what protection a battery back-up pump will and will not give you.  More specifically, whether through ignorance or otherwise, we see clients being advised by other specialist contractors that a battery back-up system is there to provide protection in the event that the mains powered pump fails.

In a perfect world there is truth in this because if your mains powered pump failed, the battery back-up pump will take over, but whereas in the event of a power-cut you simply are waiting for power to be restored so that the main pump comes back to life, when the mains powered pump fails, IT FAILS.

The implication is that you have until the battery runs out, to get the mains powered pump replaced and operational.  You would typically only know that the mains powered pump has failed when the battery back-up system is running (which should sound an audible alarm as it does in our system), meaning that the sump is full of water, which does not make it particularly viable (in our extensive experience of fitting and maintaining pumps) to change the mains powered pump, given that the mains powered pump shares the same discharge line as the battery back-up system.  You would also need to get the installing contractor or a pump specialist out to the property before the battery runs flat.

So, if you’re lucky it’s true, if you’re unlucky, it’s not.  'Do you feel lucky'?!

Three Pumps, Greater Protection:
In light of the above, we think it better not to test your luck and where safe low risk systems are required, install a system with two mains powered pumps and a battery back-up.  In this configuration we have true mechanical redundancy, and battery back-up protection.  While this may be a higher cost option, we pretty much quote for this against lesser systems constantly because we are not interested in having problems.  This is simple, but perhaps not always totally appreciated by homeowners comparing quotes, which is why we explain this here.

What else?
Waterproofing system maintenance.  We have a page on our site dedicated to this, but in a nutshell, (like cars) pumps should be serviced to ensure that they do not break down.  Somewhat unlike cars, in time pumps should be replaced (before they fail) so that your basement remains dry.  We service every system that we have installed on an annual basis, for this very reason.

So, in thinking about selecting a sump pump system what you ideally want is a super reliable and performing pump, which does not cost the earth.  This is what we use.  You can spend lots on stainless steel pumps etc. but if it’s no more reliable, there is little point when it only increases the cost of replacement.

Pump design:
We are not pump manufacturers, but understand some of what makes for reliability in mechanical pumps.  We can use any pump that we want to use, but have employed the same series of pumps for over twelve years and will not employ the systems provided by others – the battery back-up performance being an example of why this is so.

Pumps simplistically are an electric motor which is linked to an impeller.  The impeller is rotated by the motor, which puts water into motion pushing this through the pump and the attached discharge pipe. 

Like any motor, the reliability is influenced by various factors, such as:

How hard a motor is worked:
A simple comparison could be drawn with a car engine. 
Car 1 has a small engine, which provides a top speed of 90mph.
Car 2 is exactly the same size as car 1, but has a larger engine capable of 135mph.
If you run both cars on a track constantly at 90mph, which will fail first?

If you guessed car 1, you win, because car 2, running well within its capacity, is less likely to be stressed and fail as a result.

Another important item of note for the consumer:  Purchasing decisions may be made on the basis of performance figures, somewhat like cars in that ‘faster’ may be viewed as better, however what we also want is reliability.  Some pumps employ small motors that run/rotate at high speeds and therefore pump lots of water, which looks impressive but does not necessarily represent reliability.  We employ pumps with large motors that run at 80% of capacity, which provides performance AND reliability.

Cooling:
Keeping the motor cool is important because if a pump is working hard for extended periods, it will heat up, and when materials are heated they expand and ultimately this can cause distortion.  

In pumps this can place greater pressure on the bearings, increasing wear and affecting reliability.  Therefore, keeping the pump motor cool is an important consideration in pump design.

Some pumps are constructed using sealed plastic bodies which house the motor, however plastic is an insulator and is therefore not always an ideal material in which to house a pump motor.

Some pump manufacturers also 'buy in' electric motors, then install these into a ‘pump body’.  If the motor purchased has its own casing, when it is installed in to the pump body, you then have a case within a case, which again is not conducive to good cooling.

The pumps that we employ have a cast iron body (excellent heat conductor) with a purpose designed ‘case-less’ motor.

The cast iron body is entirely oil-filled and hermetically sealed, as are the bearings.  You can see the construction of the pump in the image below, including the motor and the oil filled cavity that it resides in, and the proximity of the motor to the cast iron pump body.  The net result of this is that heat generated within the pump is conducted through the oil, into the pump body which is then cooled by the water.  This design makes for superior heat dissipation and extremely reliable pumps.  Every single pump is also 100% factory tested.

Additionally, the cast iron provides weight to the pump which assists in reducing any vibration.  Our smallest mains powered pump weighs 23lb / 10.4 kilogram.

While cast iron is effective at cooling, it must be protected and this is achieved using an epoxy which is baked on to provide a superior bonded coating.  This is unique since such coatings are often just spray applied.  As a reult we have never had a single issue of corrosion in twleve years of using these pumps.   

Non-clogging:
Our pumps are installed onto purpose designed pump stands which lifts them out of the water in the base of the sump and reduces the risk that any material (silt or sediment) will be pumped.  However, our smallest pump will still pass 12mm spherical solids.  We do not include filters beneath our pumps as this ultimately creates a risk of clogging.

In the cut-away image above, you can see the 12mm gap between the impeller and the red outlined pump body.  We can employ larger pumps that will pump spherical solids the size of golf balls.

Float switches:
Pumps must be automatic, it’s no good if you have to turn them on manually, and this typically means float switches.  We commonly see switches which operate through the use of a float which is attached to a flexible cable.  When the water level rises, the float is inverted and this completes an electrical circuit to turn the pump on.  The issue with this form of float switch is that the float is free to move around, and while this may be ok in a large chamber, in a sump pump you do not want any risk of this becoming trapped or entangled with anything in the sump system.  Our float switches run up and down in a controlled vertical plain (see photo above).  Issues associated with such float switches typically arise when contractors install pumps into tiny chambers, as is evident in the image below taken in a property in the North West.

Hollow floats: If a hollow float fills with water it will not float, and the pump will not run.  Our 'floats' are constructed of solid plastic with entrained air held within it (like a foam structure), so you could drill fully through one of our floats and it would still operate as intended.

Some float switches include a float on the end of an arm, and as the float rises the arm tilts up and down, which turns the pump on and off.  We do see such pumps dropped into small sumps, also being connected to flexible discharge pipes.  When the motor in a pump starts this exerts a twisting motion, which in time can cause the pump to move and we have seen this cause failures where the lever-arm float switch hangs up on the side of the sump chamber meaning that the pump does not then turn on.  The photo below is such a case within a Manchester

So, in a nutshell, these are some of the considerations that we advise if you are choosing between sump pump systems although ultimately, as is evident within the photo's above, it is equally important to employ experienced and competent contractors because the best sump pump system in the world is of limited use if it is not installed with due care and attention.

Photo right shows a sump chamber in a Manchester property which had been formed using a black plastic box (we think it may have been designed for use as a small header tank designed for installation in an atic).

It was evidently not robust enough to resist the pressure of the soil around it, as you can see by the fact that the box is deflecting inwards.

While this was a converted habitable basement, there was also no battery back-up protection...

The installing contractors are damp proofing specialists whom we know through industry trade associations, but for whatever reason poor materials were selected in this case.

If you need a sump pump system and wish to discuss your requirements with us, please get in touch.  We can install sump pump systems for you in Manchester, North West, or further afield.

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