Battery Backup Sump Pump: Why You Need One in Your Finished Basement
So, you finally have the basement you’ve always wanted – finished walls, nice carpeting, big-screen TV, comfortable couch. You tell your envious friends, “It has everything, even a mini-fridge and a framed, signed picture of Mike Ditka.”
Sounds great and I’d love to drop by to catch the Bears-Packers game but it doesn’t really have everything because I didn’t hear you mention a battery backup sump pump. What’s that, you do have a primary sump pump? I’m sure you do, but what happens when a big summer thunderstorm knocks out the power and the water keeps running into the sump pit? Or when that old sump pump dies in the middle of the night and you don’t realize it until the next rainstorm has already done its damage?
Ruined furniture, soggy carpet and wet feet, that’s what.
Look, you’ve invested a lot of time and money in turning your basement into a comfortable living area. Doesn’t it make sense to provide a little insurance for that investment, to take one extra step to ensure that your “man cave,” family room or rec room stays dry and safe?
3 Reasons to Have a Backup Sump Pump:
Anything Mechanical Will Fail – it’s just a matter of time. As much as we would like things to last forever, anything with a motor or other moving parts will fail at some point — that’s just a fact of life. Your sump pump is no different; even the best cast iron pump with the most sophisticated switch will eventually wear out.
Power Outages are Common – especially given the age of the power grid in the upper Midwest, the frequency of heavy thunderstorms and heavy power demand in the warmer months. How many times have you seen your lights flicker and die or watched your TV picture dwindle to a pinpoint as you yelled “@#$%^& power’s out again?”
Yes, You Can Replace a Failed Sump Pump Yourself – but, when it happens in the middle of the night, or while you’re at work or away on vacation, the damage to your prized basement will be done long before you’ll have the chance. Even if you’re standing right there when the sump pump fails, you still have to go to the store, pick out the right new sump pump, return home, remove the old one and install the new one – and how long will that take? Your basement can flood in only two or three hours.
What Will a Battery Backup Sump Pump Do for Me?
To be honest, “battery backup” is somewhat of a misnomer; while there are backup sump pumps that run strictly on battery power, the more common variety is an AC/DC backup pump. This pump not only kicks in when the power is out but also when your sump pump suffers mechanical failure or is just plain overwhelmed during a heavy storm.
Install one of these pumps on a dedicated electrical circuit and you’ve covered every base to ensure that your basement will never flood due to sump pump failure. Isn’t it worth it to know that you can watch football, entertain guests or just relax in your comfortable living space without worrying whether you’ll need SCUBA gear the next time you come down?
The experts at U.S. Waterproofing really know backup sump pumps – we’ve installed thousands of battery and AC/DC backup sump pump systems for many of the 300,000 homeowners we’ve served since we were founded in 1957. We’d be happy to offer some free advice on sump pumps or any other basement waterproofing issue.
