monitoring sump pump

v1rtu0s1ty

v1rtu0s1ty

Senior Member
As you know, I haven't bought the ELK system yet. For sure, before this coming Saturday, I will become an ELK owner too. Woohoo!!!

Anyways, I would like to know if there are sensors that can monitor sump pump. If so, what does the sensor really do? Is it compatible with ELK?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Neil
 
Can you expand more on "monitor"?

Do you mean monitor when the pump is on? Monitor how much current it is drawing? Montior when it turns on and off related to a condition such as water level? Monitor water level somehow?
 
You could put a water sensor on there. I strapped mine to the PVC pipe and I put it about 1/2 way down into the pit. This way when it reaches the sensor, I still have time to react. Many people put them on the floor above the pit, but by that time, the water is already overflowing.
 
depending on what you are doing you could use a water sensor in the "pit" or above it, and wire it into a zone. or if you want to then you can monitor the currrent of the motor to tell if it is on or not. (Ive seen the circuit posted recently)
 
I am not that familiar with water sensors, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. But is there any risk of a false trigger if it is the pit from splashing?
 
BraveSirRobbin said:
Can you expand more on "monitor"?

Do you mean monitor when the pump is on? Monitor how much current it is drawing? Montior when it turns on and off related to a condition such as water level? Monitor water level somehow?
Click to expand...
I mean, like the other day, there was water coming in and the sump pump was not working properly. Water was starting to get out from joints on the concrete floor. I can hear it run but I had a feeling it was not working. So I remove the cover and found out that water wasn't being pump out. The motor runs but fails to pump out. That means, there is an object that prevents it from pulling water from pit to out. To make it work, I unplugged it and shook the pvc pipe up and down, side by side gracefully and then I bypassed the switch. The switch worked too. However, after an hour, it started failing again. :p

So maybe, based from this experience, we can think of an idea, a type of monitor that can be suitable for this.

EDIT: Oh, I'm thinking of adding a backup sump pump. Do you guys know of a really good brand and is very reliable?
 
If you are looking into a backup, I think some of them have built in contacts for alarm systems.
 
wuench said:
I am not that familiar with water sensors, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. But is there any risk of a false trigger if it is the pit from splashing?
Click to expand...
I would guess if you put the sensor in some type of small project box and drill a few holes in it to get the wanted(or unwanted however you look at the problem) water into the box/sensor then it could keep the splashing effects down....

I do like the looks of that float idea from AO
 
How about using a float sensor as described above, but also monitor the current of the pump. There are current monitors that will just output a solid voltage if the current is over two amps (might be able to get a different "trip" range).

Then if the float senses water level rising AND after a certain amount of time if the pump is on but the water level is still high, turn on the auxillary pump (and turn off the primary one).
 
BraveSirRobbin said:
How about using a float sensor as described above, but also monitor the current of the pump. There are current monitors that will just output a solid voltage if the current is over two amps (might be able to get a different "trip" range).

Then if the float senses water level rising AND after a certain amount of time if the pump is on but the water level is still high, turn on the auxillary pump (and turn off the primary one).
Click to expand...
I hope you can help me with this kind of rule! It is an awesome idea!
 
v1rtu0s1ty said:
I mean, like the other day, there was water coming in and the sump pump was not working properly. Water was starting to get out from joints on the concrete floor. I can hear it run but I had a feeling it was not working. So I remove the cover and found out that water wasn't being pump out. The motor runs but fails to pump out. That means, there is an object that prevents it from pulling water from pit to out. To make it work, I unplugged it and shook the pvc pipe up and down, side by side gracefully and then I bypassed the switch. The switch worked too. However, after an hour, it started failing again. :lol:


EDIT: Oh, I'm thinking of adding a backup sump pump. Do you guys know of a really good brand and is very reliable?
Click to expand...

If you're getting pieces of gravel or dirt in the impeller of the pump that may be what is keeping it from working properly. Years ago I had a sump pump which gave me similar problems. I ended up removing the pump and reinstalling it in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I drilled a ton of holes in the bucket to allow water to enter. Most of the problems will be at the lower levels, so I drilled larger holes near the top of the bucket. The bucket acts as a filter to keep debris out of the pump. :lol:

Because I had my basement flooded once I also installed a second sump pump mounted just above the bottom pump. This took some fiddling around to get them both in the pit. The second pump used an external float switch. The lower pump had some sort of pressure sensor built into the base of the pump.

On my old system I just used a pair of #10 solid copper wires as probes and built a small one transistor amplifier that would trip if water bridged the probes. This was connected to a bell or some such annunciator. Not elegant, but it worked for years. :rolleyes:

In the US there are suppliers of 12vdc backup sump pumps - usually in the $400 or so range IIRC.


Good luck - sump pump problems are a real PITA.

John
 
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