Sump Pump Odor and Check Valve Questions

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fracai

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Hei all,

My wife and I bought a house not too long ago and since then I've learned quite a bit about maintenance, quite a bit of it from this forum.


This past weekend while doing laundry we noticed a strong septic odor coming from the bathroom adjacent to the wash area. We use that bathroom extremely rarely and the door is typically closed so it's possible that there has just been a constant leak somewhere that built up.

Now we've always know that the check valve on the waste water pipe has leaked so my initial thought was that the valve was allowing gas out. The leak occurs when the pump shuts off, which I suppose is a water hammer effect (though it does not appear to have any effect on the rest of the plumbing system), and water shoots out the sides where the upper and lower halves of the valve come together. I plan on replacing that this weekend.

When I went down to take pictures this afternoon I noticed that there is a rubber or dense foam plug allowing the electrical cords to access the pump. This plug was loose and of course that would allow gases out so I did my best to push that back in. I also noticed some cracked grout around the basin, but now that I know what the whole system looks like I don't think that's a problem.

So where am I going with all this?

What type of check valve should I buy? Home Depot had 2 by FloTec, one similar to what I have now which used metal clamps to attach and one "heavy duty" which I think used a compression attachment. But I plan on finding the nearby Plumbing Supply store tomorrow.

Is the check valve even required? I read some posts today which seemed to imply that this check valve isn't needed and is the cause of the water hammer. Should I just replace this valve with a pipe union?

I pushed that plug down as tightly as possible, but I know this can't be properly sealed. What is my best bet for sealing that opening, while allowing the cords to be removed when the pump needs replacing? Caulk? Silicon? A more flexible rubber plug?

The spots where the piping comes out also appears to have small gaps (maybe the thickness of a few sheets of paper). Is caulk the best bet here?

Well I think that about covers my questions. Thanks for any help. This site has been great. Over the past 8 months I've used tips hear to replace the washers and seals on an outside faucet, correct the length of a tub spigot, and replace a toilet wax ring.

Below are two shots of the reservoir cap and piping. You can see that the check valve is about one and a half feet above the tank and the pipe doesn't turn level with the septic entrance (behind the wall) until around 5 feet above the tank.

Thanks again.

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