***OFFICIAL 2026 WEATHER THREAD***
- Thread starter nfrine
- Start date
Thats just it we sit high enough and the water level is low, and soil drains great, i dumped 10 gallons in last night to test it and the pit was bone dry again this morning.
Thats why I tested it last night. 2 years ago it was new after the old sump finally kicked on for the 1st time since we moved here and found the base was completely rotted out. Last year found out the little grommet wasn't hitting the switch right and woke up to a partially wet basement after that long period of back to back heavy rains. Will pull it out this weekend and get it spinning again.
Those of you mentioning sumps, do you have your hole "open" if you have a mitigation system or do you have a lid that screws off the top of the hole?
Assuming you mean a radon mitigation system. Mine has a top on the pit with sealing tape around the lid.
Yeah same as me. I haven't tested/replaced my sump since like 2019 because I re-sealed it after we had some water in the basement. I just don't think I've ever heard it run.
You could just unplug the middle ground wire and plug the sump to bypass the float and see if you hear it click on for a second.
We replaced our pump in 2017 about a year after the radon system got installed. Our guy just told us to if we had to take off that lid, just be sure to reseal it. Our sump pump has run at least 3-4 times since then.
Ours is completely sealed with the radon system. I've never seen it or heard it run in the near decade we've lived in our house.
Our basement was bone dry that night Ankeny got like 8-10 inches of rain a few years back so I assume whatever drainage system is keeping everything dry is actually working. The house sits highest in our neighborhood so when we did get all that rain, it ended up in the neighbors basement.
Yeah only reason I replaced mine was the float on the cord got tangled and must have fried it. Now I have a mechanical style up and down arm.
The fiberglass covering our pit has a 4" hole with a rubber expansion plug to fill the hole. Allows me to dump water into the pit to test the pump
Many years ago my in-laws area got quite a bit of rain. They were gone and had the neighbors check their house. I got a call one evening asking if I’d go check because they got water.
I showed up and the neighbors were sucking up water with a carpet cleaner. The man let it slip that he took off the cover to check the sump pump and when he put the cover on the hose pushed down the float so it couldnt raise. He didn’t want me to tell them.
I didn’t and my FIL went and bought battery back up and a new pump. He was terrified of getting water “again” and would bring that up several times. Many years later I told them what I was told and they didn’t believe me because……..:you know, I’m the In-law and that was his buddy.
I showed up and the neighbors were sucking up water with a carpet cleaner. The man let it slip that he took off the cover to check the sump pump and when he put the cover on the hose pushed down the float so it couldnt raise. He didn’t want me to tell them.
I didn’t and my FIL went and bought battery back up and a new pump. He was terrified of getting water “again” and would bring that up several times. Many years later I told them what I was told and they didn’t believe me because……..:you know, I’m the In-law and that was his buddy.
Yeah we moved from Ankeny that day. Parents all got back home to that mess. My parents house on the SW side at the time, the basement was dry but the water built up in the back yard and seeped into the lower level rooms. FIL on the NW side had the creek in their back yard almost reach the house (at least a 15ft drop in elevation to the creek). MIL on the NE had to leave her car and get a ride from a random lifted truck the last mile home.
I was in MN and the wife was in Story City so I had no idea what I was coming home to the next day. I could see the water trail through the yard coming from our gutters straight into the neighbors basement windows.
They ended up being super nice about everything and paying to hook our gutters into a drainage tile that exits at the front and back of their property.
We are on the NW side and I think got the worst of it. I heard 12 inches in our little stretch.
Being able to turn the AC off and open the windows in June is amazing. Give me more these next two weeks.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Jordan F-5 tornado.
https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-weather-jordan-f5-tornado-50-years/71563831
https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-weather-jordan-f5-tornado-50-years/71563831
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