Sump pump riser modification?

Background:
Evidently my new house was built on an artesian well because the sump pump runs at least once every 5 minutes even in the driest of weather. It runs once or twice a minute when it rains. It failed after only 3 years and a battery-powered backup sump was added.

Current issue:
The riser is 1 1/5" PVC and runs at least 100' to a storm drain. It's all UP HILL. That means the check valves are holding back a tremendous amount of water. Every so often one of the pumps sucks up a small bit of stone that has flushed in from the perimeter drains. It makes it as far as a check valve and that's it. Then the valve won't seat properly and it makes a "gluck, gluck" sound like a water cooler as the water tries to make its way back into the sump pit. This "glucking" of the valve is so hard that it shakes the pipe enough that it can be heard throughout the house.

The riser:


Solution:
Obviously, clean out the check valves. Sure, but when I do that the amount of water that pours back is more than the sump pit can hold! As soon as one of the unions is cracked open there's a gusher of water that floods the pit while soaking me and the furnace. It takes almost an hour to clean up the resulting mess.

Modification:
The real question is how can I modify the riser so it has something like a hose bib attached above the check valves? There's a toilet just 10' away I could drain the standing water into if I could just get a hose connected to the riser. With the standing water drained, popping loose the check valves and cleaning them out would be a 5 minute chore -- and a DRY chore!

TIA
Mike

Either you have a really good pump or the slope isn't that steep. Sump pumps do not like to push water uphill over long distances.

As for draining the water I wouldn't even bother. Just install full port valves ahead of the backflow preventers. You can just shut off the pipe and take remove the backflow preventers. Of course the downside is if you forget to open the valves back up you may possibly end up with a flooded basement and a burnt up pump.

As for how to do it just go to your local big box hardware store and pick up one or two 1.25 inch valves, cut the pvc pipe where you want to insert it, dry out the ends of the cut pipe, add pvc cement and put it together.

If you rather go the faucet route that you suggested buy one or two 1.25 inch PVC Ts, two boiler valves(these are essentially hose bibs and usually stocked near the PVC fillings), and the proper PVC reducer to go from the 1.25 inch PVC to the boiler valve. You can then use your garden hose to drain as you described. You will also need plumbers tape to wrap the threads of the boiler valves where it threads into the PVC reducer.

-rick

Thank you, -rick. I did an online search for some sort of DWV valve before posting but couldn't find anything. The search was easy once I knew the term "full port valve." Of course, if the riser can be shut off then there's no need to drain it at all. That probably gets the clean out time down to a couple minutes.

FYI -- you're right. The outlet may be far away but it's probably only a couple more feet of rise beyond what's needed to get out of the basement. It's the VOLUME of water coming back that's been a pain to deal with when a clean out was required.

Thanks again,
Mike

To clarify, common schedule 40 PVC on a sump system is 1-1/2". The full port valves need to match the pipe size.

Thanks for reinforcing that it's 1.5". I all ready read that along the pipe but better to have too much rather than too little info.

Mike

Thanks again for the help.

TaDa!