What is a Sump Pump?

Concealed in the deepest corner of your basement or cellar, your sump pump is mainly unnoticeable, but could be the most crucial home appliance in your house.

Basically your sump pump removes ground water from beneath your house. Without it, water coming up from the ground, or flowing in from a heavy rain can flood your basement or even your entire home.



The pump normally sits in a pit built into your basement floor or crawlspace. The concrete floor is poured a little downhill when your house is developed so that any liquid will stream right into that pit. The sump pump ejects the water out of the house. The pump is at the bottom of the sump hole and has a switch that is activated automatically by the water level. When you have water in your basement, because of the slant towards it, the water runs into the pit and the pump is activated and pumps the water out of the pit through a discharge pipe to the exterior.

Do I Need a Sump Pump?

If you’ve ever wondered, "What is a sump pump?" then you’re lucky, because you probably don’t need one. But for the unlucky owners of wet basements, then yes, you will need one.  There are many different types of Simp Pump available, so below I'll add some detail to each.

Pedestal Pumps

A pedestal pump is one of the most common types of sump pump. This type of pump has a  motor mounted on to a small pedestal. The entire unit usually stands about 30 inches tall. A hose or a pipe extends down from the motor to the bottom of the pit.  When the pump is activated by the rising water level, the water is sucked up through the hose and ejected through another pipe.

Submersible Pumps

Another type of sump pump is a submersible pump. These are typically much smaller and are approx about 12 inches tall and they sit in the bottom of the sump pit. Some submersible sump pumps have a float switch on a rod just like the pedestal pump, but these examples the rod is much smaller at about 4 inches (100mm) long. The electrical switch itself is encased in a hard plastic bubble and as the water level in the sump rises, the bubble floats. When it floats high enough as to reach an almost vertical position above the pump, the switch is activated and the pump kicks on.

Ejector Pumps

Should you be in a situation where you need to be able to eject some small debris, then an ejector pump will do that. If you have a crawlspace that is not concrete, but perhaps just pea gravel,  an ejector pump that can handle small debris is going to be the best solution for you. Being a little pricier, ejector pumps are usually constructed of cast iron and have a 2-inch ejector port instead of the smaller, standard 1 ¼-inch port that you find on most of the other types of sump pumps. This wider pipe width/diameter and also having a different style of impeller (pump) allows these pumps to process small pieces of gravel and debris without mechanism being damaged.

Read this Sump Pump Review to find out which Sump Pump is the best fit for you:
http://www.readytribe.com/best-sump-pumps-available/