How to Install and Use the Battery Backup Sump Pump

These days, more and more people usually worry about their primary sump system whenever losing the power. But you should not anymore since there is an inexpensive way that you can prevent this problem. By purchasing a battery backup sump pump, this item can work in conjunction with your primary pump. You can use it as a backup system in case the power goes out or the primary sump system fails. Therefore, we are going to show you how easy and inexpensive it is to add the peace of mind to your sump system. I am sure that you will never have to worry about those awful little surprises in the middle of the night. Make sure to read this article quickly to know how to install and use the battery backup sump pump in the right way.

1. How do I install a backup sump pump?

After buying the best battery backup sump pump as you wish, you can start installing this item immediately. First of all, you need to unplug the 110-volt connections and loose the stainless-steel hose clamps. Once you do this, you are going to break the connection, and you need to lift the pipe up.

You will actually see your pump as well as a backup pump built in. So, the bottom pump has a float switch, it will discharge into the pipe. If it ever does not work, there is a second float switch to make this work.

However, both of these pumps work off 110 volts, so if you do not have any power, you have 2 pumps not working. Therefore, the appearance of the battery backup sump pump is the better solution. You will still have your basic primary pump working off 110 volts.

It will sit down at the bottom of that sump pit. There is also a float switch, so when the water level rises, you can see the float switch rises, making a click and bring the pump on. But in case this pump stops working as you lose power or the pump itself is broken, you should have a backup.

The battery backup sump pump works off 12 volts of battery instead of 110 volts. The connections come over to the battery, making sure that the battery has power when you need it. You will have the trickle battery charger to make sure the battery is always fully charged.

The battery backup sump pump comes in a pre-pumped unit. As a result, before we are going to the pit, there are some threaded connections that you should add a little Teflon tape. You should use the thread sealant which is not sticky at all. Therefore, when you apply it, you actually want to apply it in a way that it compresses itself.

Moreover, you need to know some a device that is very important for a sump pump, which is a check valve. The one-way check valve allows the water to go in one way and not the other way. When you finish applying the sealant into the connection, you can tighten it up and then drop it in the pit.

Now, for the connection on the discharge side of the pump, you can use the inch and a half PVC pipe. This connection is going to use a hose clamp connector. But you need to notice that when this pipe comes up, it may not quite line up with your old work. The pump is a slightly different location than the old one.

For that case, you are going to use a couple of 45-degree angle fittings. By doing this, it will create an offset just about perfect to make the pipe straight. At the top, you can use another hose clamp connector but this goes from an inch and a quarter pipe to your inch and a half size.

Once you have done it, you will put the piece of pipe in and make a mark to cut. Every time you make a cut, you can see there is a little bit of a burr which you need to clean it off. Also, you need to ream the inside of the pipe to make it smooth.

Now, you are ready to glue the pipe and the fittings and then push them together firmly. You can hold them for about a five count. Next, we are moving to the power for the backup sump pump. It is going to come from a deep-cycle marine battery.

And of course, you need to install this into a protective plastic box. You can put the whole box on the shelf which is higher than the floor. This way can keep the battery up and away from any water in the basement.

At this moment, you need to make the electrical connections and test the result. You can imagine it is raining and the water is coming in through the French drain. In this case, the water level rises and the float comes up, the pump is on which is very quiet.

And now, we can test the backup, and you can hear a really annoying sound. That is designed to tell you that you are in backup mode. With no doubt, you are having a primary pump and a backup pump, which is going to keep your place dry even the lights are out.

If you want to see more information about the installation, you can watch this video for further details:

2. How to Install the battery backup sump pump

Check the battery regularly

Firstly, we are going to introduce a little bit about the battery backup sump pump for your house. Since the battery provides all the power for the backup sump pump, it is important to check it periodically. I highly recommend about every 6 months.

For any part of the world that has snow melts, the mid-March would be a good time to check your backup sump pump. As a result, you can make sure that the batteries are in good shape. The other time might be after the first killing frost when we get falling rains that get a lot of flows into our basement.

To check the battery, you need to have a voltmeter and check the voltage. If you see that it is reading around 14, that would be the charger on. You can unplug the charger, and then just check the voltage again. If it is around 13 or 14, you can know that it is a very acceptable range.

For instance, if the system starts to pump and you can hear the sump pump turned on, this means that it is pumping water. If the voltage drops from 13 to 12, that is a very good signal and that is what you would want.

The other measurement you have to make is when there is an actual load on it. Because even though the battery reads a correct voltage, when you put the load on, it may be actually quite a bit lower.

You need to unplug the charger, and then, you are going to put a load on it. You can put water into the sump pump and measure the voltage. Under the load, you can see if the battery voltage stays fairly constant and does not drop too much when it starts to pump.

However, if the voltage drops to 11.5, your battery might be getting weak or old, which might be time to consider replacing it.

3. How much protection will the backup sump pump provide?

I think that you may ask this question related to how much actual protection that your backup sump pump will provide. To answer this question, you need to set up a test in your house with a full basement. You can measure the amp draw on the pump, and you can know your hour battery under continuous pumping.

This is the worst scenario when you get so much water coming in that the pump is just running continuously. If your battery ampere-hour rating is around 40, this can provide 3 and a half hours before the battery runs out.

A 75-ampere-hour battery provides about 6 hours and 45 minutes of protection. If you take 75 divided by 10, you will get 7 and a half hours. It is a little less than what the rating is with this motor. With an 84-ampere-hour battery, it provides about 7 and a half hours of protection.

In case you buy a bigger battery, which has about 120-ampere hours of protection, it will provide about 11 hours of continuous pumping. However, most of the time some pumps do not pump continuously, so I am going to take the second test.

In particular, I will set this test up by making the pump only run once every 4 minutes, which is quite a freaking pumping interval. The smaller battery of 40-ampere hours will provide about 32 hours with the pump running every 4 minutes for about 15 seconds.

The battery is actually able to recover a little bit between times. The 75 one can provide about 60 hours protection or 2 and a half days of this intermittent pumping. Going to the rating 84, it can provide about 68 hours.

Moreover, if you buy the 120-ampere-hour battery, it will provide about 96 hours or almost 4 days’ worth of intermittent pumping before the battery would water on you. As a consequence, in an emergency situation, if your battery goes on long, you can go out to a vehicle.

You can substitute in a 12-volt battery of a motor, of the car as well as of a pickup. By doing this, you can have the extra protection that you need.

4. Conclusion

In summary, I hope that all of the information related to how to install and use the battery backup sump pump will help you gain more understanding. However, in case you want to have more queries, please feel free to keep in touch with me anytime.