Sump pump in the winter help (humidifier, foundation, furnace, tank)
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This forum has always helped me with questions pertaining sump pump. I have a Zoller sump pump that works very well during the spring, summer and fall season. However, the winter is here and I would like some help about the water being discharged outside from the pump.
I have a Honeywell whole house humidifier that is mounted on the supply duct. The water that runs through the humidifer is filtered to the sump pit (furnace and sump pump are in the basement), and then pumps outside of the house. In NJ, winter has been cold and I am afraid the ground freezing up.
Yesterday, I went outside to where the sump pit dumps the water. The 2 or 2.5 inch pipe on the outside runs about 1~2 feet down the ground. I wanted to see where the water was dumped, so I dug around the pipe and was thinking the pipe would be connected to the gutter drain line a few feet from the house. But this was not the case! I would say I dug a good 1.5 ~ 2 feet below and still can feel the pipe going downward.
My question is, how far down is the pipe going and where does it lead to? My main concern is I am afraid the water being discharged from inside the house where the sump pit is, to outside the house would freeze up since the ground is frozen in the winter.
Right now, I redirected the humidifier filtered water to a 25 gallon fish tank and manually dump it into my sink. (is this uncecessary?)
do any of you use a whole house humidifier and is it safe to discharge it to the sump pit and pump it outside?
Are you in the country? Do you have a septic or sanitary sewers? Most jurisdictions do not have sump pump standards, though I'm sure we'll hear about some that do. Usually they pump to a road ditch or just downhill. Usually I've just had a bale of straw over the outlet and that kept it open. Some peeps do hook them up to septics but that could fill one fast. Bad time of year to go looking.
take a five gallon bucket and fill it with water, put some food coloring in it and pour into sump pit and let the pump drain it out. go outside and look for the colored water.
take a five gallon bucket and fill it with water, put some food coloring in it and pour into sump pit and let the pump drain it out. go outside and look for the colored water.
I have done that. I even dug down almost 2 feet outside where the pipe comes out from the basement. It looks like it's still going down... so not sure if they connected all the down pass the freeze point or what...
We have a whole house humidifier that also empties into the sump pit. There really is no issue with the humidifier being pumped outside, as it is much less water than any moderate rain. What you want to make sure is that if sump pump discharge pipes freeze, that it doesn't back into the house. The standard way of doing this is to have a gap in the piping just outside the house, so that if the line under ground freezes and backs up, the water still discharges from the house , hits the frozen pipe, and falls to the ground outside the house. So -Discharge pipe runs out of the house a few inches and than drops into a funel or larger diameter pipe that leads into the ground. Let me know if this makes sense, if not, I'll take a picture of mine and send a link. It is only really needed if you are running the pipes underground that might freeze, which it seems you are. Also, if you slope your discharge pipes so they are always running downhill, there is much less possibility to freeze as the pumped out water moves pretty quickly.
We have a whole house humidifier that also empties into the sump pit. There really is no issue with the humidifier being pumped outside, as it is much less water than any moderate rain. What you want to make sure is that if sump pump discharge pipes freeze, that it doesn't back into the house. The standard way of doing this is to have a gap in the piping just outside the house, so that if the line under ground freezes and backs up, the water still discharges from the house , hits the frozen pipe, and falls to the ground outside the house. So -Discharge pipe runs out of the house a few inches and than drops into a funel or larger diameter pipe that leads into the ground. Let me know if this makes sense, if not, I'll take a picture of mine and send a link. It is only really needed if you are running the pipes underground that might freeze, which it seems you are. Also, if you slope your discharge pipes so they are always running downhill, there is much less possibility to freeze as the pumped out water moves pretty quickly.
thanks for the reply z28lt1. I might add that I used to own a 1997 LT1 SS (anniversary edition <white with red pinstripe>) loved that car!
I understand what you mean but if you can supply a photo when you can, that would clarify what I am trying to picture. My humidifier dumps roughly about 20 gallons of water of water in 21 hours, I'd say roughly a gallon an hour (knowing this from a 20 gallon fish tank that I used for a few days.) My sump pump is levelled where it begins to pump when it hits roughly at 10 gallons. So It runs twice a day, 3 times at most. (I might add, the spring, with heavy rainy season, my pump runs about 4 times an hour. which means it pumps 40 gallons of water in an hour, is that a lot? To me, yes, to many of my close by neighbors, no.)
having that said, my discharge pipe does have an inch or two gap between the basement concrete at the outside of the house, the directs straight downward (only dug about 2 feet deep and noticed the black pvc pipe still goes downward. I stopped digging there so I am not sure if a french drain or another connected pipe is running to a storm drain.) I read in order to reach non-freeze zone, it needs to be beyond 36 inches below ground....I just want to make sure it doesn't just dump it directly near the foundation or to the dirt where it can get frozen.)
thanks for the reply z28lt1. I might add that I used to own a 1997 LT1 SS (anniversary edition <white with red pinstripe>) loved that car!
I understand what you mean but if you can supply a photo when you can, that would clarify what I am trying to picture. My humidifier dumps roughly about 20 gallons of water of water in 21 hours, I'd say roughly a gallon an hour (knowing this from a 20 gallon fish tank that I used for a few days.) My sump pump is levelled where it begins to pump when it hits roughly at 10 gallons. So It runs twice a day, 3 times at most. (I might add, the spring, with heavy rainy season, my pump runs about 4 times an hour. which means it pumps 40 gallons of water in an hour, is that a lot? To me, yes, to many of my close by neighbors, no.)
having that said, my discharge pipe does have an inch or two gap between the basement concrete at the outside of the house, the directs straight downward (only dug about 2 feet deep and noticed the black pvc pipe still goes downward. I stopped digging there so I am not sure if a french drain or another connected pipe is running to a storm drain.) I read in order to reach non-freeze zone, it needs to be beyond 36 inches below ground....I just want to make sure it doesn't just dump it directly near the foundation or to the dirt where it can get frozen.)
thanks.
My LT1 is now an LT4. It is also now almost a track only car, but still very much fun.
Here is a picture of mine. Ignore that the pipes are somewhat mis-aligned the winter cold shifted it a little. But, this is what I mean. If the pipes underground freeze and backup, the discharge from the will fall out of the pipe and onto the ground -- not ideal falling by the foundation- but still much better than backing back up into the house.
Mine is run pretty shallow at the house so that I can keep the pipe sloping downwards across the whole property into the woods. The downward slope also helps prevent the freeze as that in theory it should run all the way out, and not have time to freeze.
My LT1 is now an LT4. It is also now almost a track only car, but still very much fun.
Here is a picture of mine. Ignore that the pipes are somewhat mis-aligned the winter cold shifted it a little. But, this is what I mean. If the pipes underground freeze and backup, the discharge from the will fall out of the pipe and onto the ground -- not ideal falling by the foundation- but still much better than backing back up into the house.
Mine is run pretty shallow at the house so that I can keep the pipe sloping downwards across the whole property into the woods. The downward slope also helps prevent the freeze as that in theory it should run all the way out, and not have time to freeze.
thanks for the photo. Mine looks similar to yours except it doesn't have the opening to have the overflow coming out to the ground. Mine is just a straight pvc pipe like yours that goes straight down to the ground. I dug 2 feet deep and it seemed to be still going downward, I hope it goes straight down below the freeze line so I wouldn't have to worry about it.
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