Sump Pump FAQs - St. Louis & Springfield

The best sump pump for your basement is one that is capable of handling any groundwater even during the rainy season and snow melt. The Sump Pump Geeks will inspect your basement and crawl space for free, and based on their findings recommend the right sump pump for your home.

When choosing a sump pump it is important to know how much power it has, how many gallons of water it can pump per hour, whether it has mechanisms that prevent it from overheating and shutting down and a working float switch that will not tangle. The sump pit choice and discharge line is also important.

The storms that flood basements tend to knock off power. For that reason it is a good idea to have a battery backup sump pump to pick up the tab when the main sump is out of commission.

Unless you have a whole house generator to keep things running during power outages it is an exceptionally good idea to have at least one battery backup sump pump system. Midwest Basement Tech offers single and dual battery backup systems that will help protect your basement in a power outage.

There are many reasons why a basement may have a working sump pump and still be wet. Those include:

• The sump pump is not powerful enough to handle all the water coming in.
• The sump liner or sump basin is too small to contain all the water, so the basin overflows.
• The drainage system is clogged or collapsed.
• The sump pump was not installed in the lowest corner of the basement
• The drainage systems was not installed with the correct pitch to divert all the water to the sump pump.

This may be caused by a glitch related to the float switch. It is not turning the pump off when the sump basin is empty.

That often happens because there is more water coming in. If you aren’t getting more rain than usual, there might be changes in the water table caused by nearby construction, changes in the city wastewater system, etc.

During periods of heavy rain, overworked sump pumps will run a little hot, even though they are submerged in the basin with cool water running through them. A good sump pump, like the ones offered by Sump Pump Geeks, will not run hot as often and will be designed to prevent overheating and burnout.

Check to see if it was not accidentally unplugged or if the circuit breaker was not tripped. Check the float switch to make sure it is operating freely and not tangled or obstructed by debris. If these do not solve the problem, call the Sump Pump Geeks for service.

This usually happens when the float switch malfunctions. Call the Sump Pump Geeks for service.

If your sump pump basin doesn’t have a lid, debris and even small animals can fall in and start to smell. Standing water in the pit can also allow smelly bacteria to grow.  If your sump pit does have a lid, the smell might be caused by the groundwater getting mixed with wastewater or sewage from the surrounding areas. Nothing that Midwest Basement Tech can’t diagnose and fix, so just reach out!