If you have an electric sump pump in your home, it is going to FAIL, period, end of story. All electric sump pumps will stop pumping because of either (1) a loss of electricity or (2) the pump will break down mechanically.
In regard to the 1st reason, if you have lived in the Oklahoma City area for any length of time, you know that it is not uncommon for the electricity to go out, generally during a thunderstorm. If for some reason it was out for an extended period of time, is your basement going to FLOOD?
In regard to the 2nd reason, all mechanical devices eventually stop working. With a standard electric sump pump, that could be anywhere from the day you install it to 25 years later. No one can predict when that day will come, other than to say it will come! In either case, if you are not home to manually bail water from your sump pump basin, your basement will probably flood. What if you leave for a 2-week vacation and the day after you leave, it starts raining and about that same time, your sump pump stops working. Without a working sump pump or back up sump pump, the odds are you will return to a flooded basement.
A water powered back up sump pump has no battery to wear out or maintain, no charger to plug in or monitor and is designed as an automatic, independent system from the primary electric sump pump. It is powered by your house cold water supply, the same cold water that you drink and bath in. Can you ever remember a time when you didn’t have cold running water in your home? That gives you an idea as to how reliable a power source cold water is. Compare this to electricity or if you have owned a battery back up, the life of a battery. The water powered back up sump pump’s float assembly is installed in your existing sump pump basin (hole in the floor) just above the float level of the primary electric pump. By doing this, when your primary pump fails to come on, the water level will continue to rise and eventually rise to the level of the back up pump’s float, thus turning on the water powered back up sump pump. Because the power source is unlimited cold water, the water powered pump can run for an indefinite period of time. If you were gone for a month, it would continue to cycle on and off for the entire month keeping your basement high and dry.
If you are wondering about the damage caused by flooded basements and how often it occurs, call your homeowners insurance agent and ask him or her. If you have insurance to cover the flooded basement damage, you still have to pay the deductible, which in most cases will be either $500 or $1,000. When you consider that, investing in a water powered back up sump pump makes good business sense. Call today to schedule an estimate on the installation of a water powered back up sump pump.