in this video I'll show you a quick easy
DIY early warning system for the sump
pump in your house. this can prevent
thousands in flood damage to your house
and anyone can and must do this. FRAKKING
CREATIONS. A youtube variety channel that
touches different parts of your life.
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the channel or check out our website. to
get started let's first quickly go over
what a sump pump and sump pit are and
what they are for. for houses that have a
basement oftentimes you will find a sump
pit with a sump pump in it. a sump pit
is a tank or a pit installed at the
lowest point of the house and it is used
to collect water. the sump pump inside is
just a water pump that pumps water out
of the sump pit. there will also be a
flow activator that will turn the sump
pump on or off automatically as needed
when the water reaches a certain level.
usually, the sump pit is closed at the
top by a removable cover that is screwed
on. the reason you need these is that
when there is water around your house's
foundation. for example, when it rains or
when snow melts in the spring the water
has to go somewhere.
some will flow away from your house onto
the street while the rest will seep into
the ground around your house. the water
that seeps into the ground around and
under the foundation can end up entering
the house if it builds up and has
nowhere to go.
this is where the sump system comes in. a
series of underground drain pipes run
around the foundation of the house that
allows the build-up of water around the
foundation to drain into these series of
pipes, drain into the sump pit for the
sump pump to pump out of your house. most
of the time you don't have to deal with
your sump pump because it is working as
expected. when the water reaches a
certain level in the sump pit the sump
pump automatically turns on and pumps
the water out of the pit. it's when it
doesn't work that big problems can
result in thousands of dollars of damage
can occur. here are three common reasons
for sump pumps to not run as expected.
the first reason the sump pump doesn't
run is because it fails or breaks down. I
remember a friend had his basement flood
when it was raining hard while we were
all partying upstairs.
his sump pump had stopped working and
two inches of water had flooded the
basement from the sump pit before he
found out. they ended up having to rip
out all the drywall and have it all
replaced. the second reason is a tripped
circuit breaker. if for whatever reason
the circuit breaker for the power outlet
that the sump pump is connected to is
tripped and you didn't know the sump
pump won't run when it needs to. the
third reason is a power outage. recently
we had a power outage and it had been
raining the night before and was still
raining the next day. without power the
sump pump could not turn on. as a result,
the water level was rising in the sump
pit and we didn't even know, but luckily
we had an early warning system that went
off and allowed us to take care of the
situation before the basement started
flooding with water. this early warning
system is easy to set up so let's go
over how to do this. I learned this
simple DIY from my dad and I think that
everyone should have this installed too.
here we have a water alarm and it's
worth the money you spend on it. it only
needs to save you once to be worth it.
how does it work? when the two contacts
of the water alarm come in contact with
water the alarm will be triggered. in
this case by a very loud alarm that we
can even hear from the second floor of
the house. you want to buy one like this
where the contacts can be detached and
also have an extension wire. then all you
do is dangle the contact plate to a
height in the sump pit where you want to
be warned. this should be higher than
where the sump pump would normally turn
on but lower than the top of the sump
pit because you want to give yourself
time to react before the water starts
overflowing out. once installed the next
time your sump pump decides to take a
vacation
you will be warned and you can take
action right away. and for those of you
that want a fancier alarm and one that
can warn you while you're not at home,
smart water detectors are also available.
these will warn you by push notification
to your smartphone. find a link to these
alarms in the video description below.
now that you have an early warning
system what do you do if your sump pump
one day stops working and you get an
alarm notification? as basic as it is, use
a bucket and scoop. you can easily use
these to scoop the water out and dump it
in the toilet after.
make sure not to fill the bucket to the
top because you don't want the water
spilling out when you're carrying it to
the washroom. a bucket with a handle can
make things easier and also one that
folds away like this is great because it
can be kept handy and ready to use
without taking much space. as a bonus for
watching to the end of our video here
are some other tips. some sump pumps have
two wires plugged into the outlet. one is
for the sump pump and the other is for
the flow activator. if at any point in
time the sump pump doesn't turn on when
it's supposed to unplug it from the flow
activator plug and plug it directly into
the outlet to see if the problem is the
activator or the sump pump. make sure to
test your sump pump flow activator and
water alarm at least once a year to make
sure the system is working properly. also
don't let the water level go too low
when the sump pump is being tested. if
not enough water is going through the
pump it could overheat and get damaged.
we hope this video was useful to you and
saves you from a flooding basement in
the future. if you enjoyed it please
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the end of 2020 thanks for your support FRAKKING CREATIONS