Coleman sump pump

I was looking at sump pumps recently, planning for the eventuality that my old pump will die and came across Coleman made by Franklin.
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/ColemanCom/detail.asp?CategoryID=64667&product_id=50-ACCP

They have a limited lifetime warranty so I'm curious how reliable they are.

29 views and nobody has an opinion on Coleman pumps?

By comparison, the Ridgid made by Wayne, has a three year warranty.


In the past, I would wait until the pump in the hole failed before buying a new one otherwise a new pump in the box could run out of warranty before it went in the hole. With a lifetime warranty that is no longer a factor.

I am not familiar with Coleman/Franklin. I would stay away from "Big Box" store brands such as Simers, Flotec, Rigid, etc. Sure they carry a "lifetime warranty" but my last lifetime pump lasted 3 months and I was replacing it at 2am with water pouring into the pit. Stick with Zoeller, Liberty, Hydromatic, Stevens. I also have no experience with pedestal pumps, always use submersible. As in most pumps, the switch will quit long before the pump dies.

Hey admin, how about a "sump, sewage and effluent pump" forum.

bubb1957 said:

I would stay away from "Big Box" store brands such as Simers, Flotec, Rigid, etc. Sure they carry a "lifetime warranty"...

Click to expand...

I was not aware any of those had a lifetime warranty. I realize it might not be worth the paper it is written on.

Franklin Electric has been making pump motors for other pump manufacturers such as Goulds. They have acquired quite a few other pump makers over the years.

https://franklin-electric.com/company/about-franklin/

Dredging up my old thread... I never did follow up on my plan to pre-emptively replace the spare pump I had. Doesn't look like Coleman is still in the sump pump business so not sure what they would replace one with today.

The pump I had in the pit back in 2011 when I started this thread, I installed in 2007. It lasted for almost 14 years and the still-working used pump it replaced was my spare which now got pressed back in service. Not sure how old the spare that I just put back in the pit was when I pulled it in 2007. For all I know it could be on its last legs or it could outlast the 14 year old pump that died.

The wife got on my case, insisting I buy a new pump locally right away, rather than risk shipping delays of an online purchase, so my choices were limited. After having to stick my arms into cold water up to my elbows to remove the old submersible pump, I opted for a pedestal pump this time.

I have never had very good luck with box store or farm supply brands of sump pumps. I have installed a fair amount of Zoeller sump pumps and had good service from them. But on a couple systems that pump a lot of water and cycle a lot which one of them is my own home the switch on the Zoeller's just wouldn't stand up to a bunch of cycling. On those high usage systems I have installed AMT pedestal pumps and there aren't cheap but they hold up. Mine has been in for seven years and no issues. I would normally have to put a switch in my Zoeller every two years.

As I said, I was "told" to buy a new pump that same day so not many options and no online ordering. The pedestal pump that I picked up has terrible online reviews. On the CTC site, it is the following but the picture does not match. It has a 3 year warranty.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-1-3-hp-column-sump-pump-0623509p.html#srp

As far as I can tell, the actual pump is a spitting image of the Superior Pump 92333 so my guess is that CTC had them make it on their own label.
https://www.superiorpump.com/products/pedestal/92333.html

Assuming it lasts for 3 years, I will pull it out then and replace it, keeping it as a spare. In the meantime, I put an old security cam on it that I had collecting dust. It is set to trigger on motion of the float rod and switch, so that I can easily review its performance. I am still tweaking the float settings. It now takes 40 seconds to draw down the sump. On a warm day with snow melting, the sump ran about once every hour or so.

I understand sometimes we are "told" to buy something. Your cam is a neat idea. Our snow is melting around here now also and my sump pump is kicking on about ever ten minutes. I have my float set on my AMT so it fills the drain tile field up in the basement before it kicks the pump on to get a longer off cycle and more run time on the pump. If when we bought the farm years ago and installed the drain field and would have known how much water we were going to pump I would have installed a bigger basin for more reserve. Not going to tear the floor up now to put a bigger basin in. In the rain season in the spring mine will kick on every five mins. We have a lot of springs on this farm. I have a dry basement but pump a lot of water.

I could really stretch out the runtime if I set the float to allow the perimeter drain Big O pipe and the 3/4" stone bed to fill. Because I dump my water softener and iron filter drains into the sump, I'd rather not have that soak into the stone bed and clog the slots in the Big O pipe.

I am considering running the softener and iron filter drains out an alternate route to drain by gravity but then it would run close to the surface and possibly freeze. I would need to set it up so that if it froze, it would backup and overflow into the sump pit.

The softener did a regen last night and the sump pump ran a total of 7 cycles. Granted, it was also dumping into the pit while the pump was running so the runtime was lengthened. The effort to offload it from the sump might be more trouble than it is worth.

I understand what you are saying about the softener water. I don't dump my softener into my sump pit just pump the water from my drain tile field. Some day if I run out of projects I might install a larger sump pit but I doubt that will ever happen. I would have to catch a real dry year or it would be a nasty job to install a bigger sump pit. When we bought the farm we knew there was water in the basement and it needed drain tile we just didn't know how much water there was. It was a estate deal and no one had been in the house in years.

The softener discharge into the pit is the lesser of two evils. The iron filter backwash is far worse . Last night's softener regen cycled the pump four times.


I think in many cases there is a natural water table that one should not lower any more than is necessary. I think it would be harder (in a non-linear way) to lower the table. The only upside I see to keeping it lower than necessary is it buys you more time in the event of a power failure before the level reaches flood potential. Where I have the high level set to, it buys me at least four hours of time in a storm before it reaches the probes on my high water alarm and probably another four hours before it breaches the floor level. I planned it that way in case I am at work when there is a failure. Of course the water table varies with the seasons so YMMV.