Power outage

[Grease]

I had a little power outage last night. Luckily for some reason I woke up 5 minutes before I lost power or I would have had water all over the place. Whats my best option for a battery backup for my sump? I have a eshopps overflow.

 

[fort384]

If your sump is setup correctly, you should not have any overflow or spillage issue during a power loss. If your sump will overflow during a power outage, it is disaster waiting to happen.

The level in your sump should be such that in the even of a power outage, it can handle all of the water that would drain from the DT to the sump.

 

[Flreefer]

I think he's meaning his overflow box loses siphon, and will flood the DT? Ive heard of people using Aqualifter pumps on their overflow boxes, to re-establish the siphon. As far as I understand it, once power is back on, the pump pulls water into the overflow box, giving it enough potential energy, to re-start the siphon. Not positive, but I think this is how it works. I think they're only like $20-30.

 

[fort384]

Oh ok. I was thinking the issue was the other way. I am not familiar with HOB overflows but I thought If they were setup correctly, there should be no overflow even if power is lost/regained? Maybe I am wrong here. Wouldn't be the first time

 

[ccCapt]

If your sump is setup correctly, you should not have any overflow or spillage issue during a power loss. If your sump will overflow during a power outage, it is disaster waiting to happen.

The level in your sump should be such that in the even of a power outage, it can handle all of the water that would drain from the DT to the sump.

That is true. If you lose power, you should have your sump setup so it can handle the extra water that will drain from the DT in a power outage. The HOB overflow should not lose siphon during a power outage and when the pump turns back on the overflow should start up like nothing ever happened.
I used a HOB overflow for close to 20 yrs and never had any problems with it restarting after I shut the pump off.

 

[scottayy]

Yeah, you won't lose siphon in a power outage. When the sump pump stops pumping water into the DT, the siphon simply sits there, water still in the u-tube. When the power is back on, the siphon is resumed without any interaction.

From the OP, it sounds like there's not enough space in his sump to allow the water to drain.

 

[Grease]

I was talking about the sump. I just got the sump last week so still kind of new to it. I just thought it would overfill if I lost power. I think I will turn the return pump off n c if it would spill out or not.

 

[Flreefer]

Oh ok. I was thinking the issue was the other way. I am not familiar with HOB overflows but I thought If they were setup correctly, there should be no overflow even if power is lost/regained? Maybe I am wrong here. Wouldn't be the first time

I'm not familiar with them either, I just thought this was what the OP was meaning. Reading different threads, I've read of people losing their siphon, somehow, and thought it was from power outage. And from researching HOB overflows, before i got a drilled tank, i read that an aqualifter was recommended. Sorry for adding to the confusion!

 

[Grease]

No biggie. U were just trying to help out.

 

[fort384]

Sounds like a good plan. You will want to run the water level in your sump such that it can handle all the water that drains from the DT when you switch the pump off. That way you are covered

 

[Grease]

The water from the dt runs down into the a micron bag in the sump. Would it be smart to put some sort of carbon in there?

 

[fort384]

I wouldn't put carbon in there just because it might make a mess. Rather, if you need to run carbon it might be easier to get a mesh bag from your LFS and stick it in a high flow area. Those filter bags tend to clog up over time and overflow a bit, and if that happens and you have carbon in there you are liable to end up with carbon granulars floating around in your sump.

 

[Grease]

Gotcha. Thanks

 

[scottayy]

If you have return tubes going over the tank, they will back-siphon water into your sump and you'll have a flood even if your sump can handle the initial water load from the DT. To prevent this, you should drill holes in your return tubes just below the water line in the DT. This way air gets sucked in and prevents the back-siphon.

 

[fort384]

If you have return tubes going over the tank, they will back-siphon water into your sump and you'll have a flood even if your sump can handle the initial water load from the DT. To prevent this, you should drill holes in your return tubes just below the water line in the DT. This way air gets sucked in and prevents the back-siphon.

Good point. This step is often overlooked. Definitely multiple small holes is the way to go too, in case one gets plugged up by algae or a critter. Any redundancy that can be built in to prevent your sump from flooding is a good thing in my book. Some folks will also install a check valve on the return line as an extra measure of security to prevent possible back siphoning, even with holes drilled in the return near the water level of the DT.

 

[Grease]

So I turned my return pump off n let the overflow go until it stopped. My sump was about 3/4 full. So I can rest easy knowing if I lose power it won't flood. ?