Sump pump help

[Sassy]

I woke up last Sunday morning to my bedroom carpet wet from the heavy rain wè had. First time in 34 years of living here. We have no basement. Our house is on a slab and at the bottom of a street that drains in our direction. Plus, the nextdoor neighbor’s downspouts point directly at our foundation. I spoke to her and she won’t do anything to change them. We have a French Drain on that side, which I found out afterwards, isn’t working and I don’t have the funds to have it repaired. I bought a Drummond Submersible 3/4 hp Sump Pump for the French Drain well. My question is, is it ok to leave the pump plugged in all the time? It drains the water in about ten minutes and then it’s silent until water starts to cover the holes on the pump again. There is a large pvc pipe in the side of the French drain that fills it back up continually from the springs underneath this area but as soon as it covers the pump, the pump drains it quickly. We are expecting several hours of horrendous rain again in the middle of the night again. I didn’t know if it would burn out the motor leaving it plugged in all the time since it normally continually pumps and quits and pumps and quits?

 

[Bannerman]

Sounds as though you may have purchased a submersible utility pump, not a sump pump.

A utility pump is usually not equipped with a float switch, and so will continue to run for the entire time it remains plugged-in. Utility pumps are often utilized temporarily to eliminate standing water caused by a flood, or to remove water from an open tank such as a swimming pool or hot tub.

Sump pumps are typically equipped with a float switch, to provide automatic operation when the water within a sump pit has risen to a certain level, then to shut off power to the pump once the water level has fallen. Allowing the pump to operate continuously without water, will most likely cause it to overheat and fail.

If your pump is not equipped with a float switch, one can likely be easily added with an add-on switch kit, similar to these:

Piggy Back Float Switch
Vertical Float Switch

 

[Sponsor]

 

[GReynolds929]

Depending on you local codes, it is normally prohibited to direct runoff or groundwater to someone else's property. Might be worth looking into.