Water Generated Sump Pumps

Do you check your sump pump on a regular basis? Although your basement is dry, is it because your backup system is doing all of the work? Recently, we have seen an uptick in sump pump failures. The reason these get back to the Township Water/Sewer Department is that many homes have water-generated sump pumps as a backup.

Although this is one of your safest ways to keep your basement dry during a power outage, it does no justice for your water bill after running undetected for several days, or even weeks because your primary, electric sump pump may have gone bad. We have seen cases where some residents have had a several thousand-dollar water bill because their water-generated sump pump ran for a few weeks without anyone knowing. Due to the on/off nature, our meter reading system does not detect this as a leak and will not alarm us.

There is very little the Township can do to adjust a water bill once the water is used because we have to buy the water from Genesee County.

Take a minute today to see if you have a water-powered backup sump pump and consider installing an alarm on it so you know when it is active.

Resources

View this Richtech Industries article on why electric sump pumps are better than water-powered sump pumps.