What breaks first when pumps short cycle/run often?

[Vikram Desikan]

I have a perfectly well functioning sump pump setup which had kept my basement dry... except this one time when my primary pump failed (& secondary was unplugged by a contractor working on a job!). This pump that failed was a zoeller M98, which was probably not more than a year old.

This got me thinking of going to a zoeller N98 pump with an electronic switch such as the levelguard. The assumption of course was that the constant cycle (short cycling?) killed my pump switch.

In my basement(greater Boston), during heavy rains and snow melts in spring, the pump runs for~2 minutes with a 45s-~1 minutes turn off. Say the pumps are active between Nov-Arp.

So, the question is what fails(premature failure) when pumps run this frequently - is it the pump itself or the switch?
Also, is my description of the pump activity indicative of short cycling or simply an overactive situation?

Any feedback/ suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Valveman]

Cycling wears out everything. I would expect the switch to go before the motor, but not always. If you can increase the volume of your sump, the pump will cycle less, as that is a lot of cycling. Could also add a smaller pump that would run for longer periods of time and just use the large pump as the backup.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Vikram Desikan]

Cycling wears out everything. I would expect the switch to go before the motor, but not always. If you can increase the volume of your sump, the pump will cycle less, as that is a lot of cycling. Could also add a smaller pump that would run for longer periods of time and just use the large pump as the backup.

Thanks for the response... I have thought about 2 things that delivers the same effects as your suggestion, I would appreciate if you could comment on my thoughts-

1. Put in a bigger sump liner (30" perhaps?)current liner is only 19" deep
- the fear I have with this approach is that going deeper will cause the pump to be active for a longer season, given that the water table where I live is high in general.
- Secondly, is a pump running say(theoretically) 15 minutes with a 7 minute break better off than a pump with the same run time (2 minute run time, at 1 minute intervals) for the day? Is there a magic number when longer cycle times become a bigger burden than short cycling?
2. Add a second pump and alternate - this would run each pump 1/2 times less - ie. instead of 480 on/off operations it would be 240. Is this adding enough value to justify going this route?

 

[Valveman]

1 minute on and 1 minute off will usually get you through the warranty period. The less the pump cycles the longer it will last. Going deeper might mean you would be continually pumping ground water. Maybe you could go wider instead of deeper?

Alternating 2 pumps splits the abuse. It should make the pumps last longer, but they will both quit at the same time as they have the same number of starts and hours.

 

[Vikram Desikan]

1 minute on and 1 minute off will usually get you through the warranty period. The less the pump cycles the longer it will last. Going deeper might mean you would be continually pumping ground water. Maybe you could go wider instead of deeper?

Alternating 2 pumps splits the abuse. It should make the pumps last longer, but they will both quit at the same time as they have the same number of starts and hours.

"Alternating 2 pumps splits the abuse." - very well said .Its better the pump abused than I... I am planning to bring in a civil engineer to survey the situation next year, hopefully I can find better solutions....

Thank you for your response once again. A wider basin is probably a wise option. I do have a second pit where I have a 3rd pump... This will serve as the backup when both my primaries fail .