Protecting Your Home During a Power Outage

Your home’s primary defense against water intrusion is a powerful and reliable sump pump system. But what if the power goes out? Is your basement protected in the event of a power outage?

A heavy rain combined with a power outage could have disastrous consequences!

We recommend that all sump pumps have a battery backup pump. With regular maintenance, a battery backup is the best option for protecting your home during a power outage, a tripped circuit or even if the primary pump fails.

When set to the highest level, our UltraSump® battery backup sump pump will remove 11,500 gallons or more on a fully charged battery – that is a lot of water!

Some customers ask if we recommend a water-driven backup pump. Well, that choice is entirely up to the homeowner. We feel that an educated customer is the best customer and there are some factors for consideration when choosing the best type of back-up pump. Let’s first review how the water-driven backup system works.

A water powered pump uses the home’s water pressure from the local municipal system. Therefore no power or battery is required to run a water-driven sump pumps. The pressure creates a suction to remove the water from the sump pit.

There are a few requirements necessary for a water-driven sump pump system to work:

-         A reliable municipal water source

-         Consistent and good water pressure from this municipal source

-         The home’s municipal water intake needs to be located close to the sump pump. This may be costly and/or inconvenient in some homes – especially if the basement is finished.

So let’s say that you are confident with the reliability of your municipal water system and the intake is located near your existing sump pump, there are three further critical factors to note:

1. Because a water-driven pump relies on bringing in water, if there is a malfunction in the backup, it may result in drawing huge amounts of municipal water – the consequence being an enormous water bill! Furthermore, water-driven pumps can overwhelm wastewater disposal systems when it is processed along with sanitary sewage – all that water has to go somewhere!
2. When understanding the ability of water-driven backup pumps to remove the wastewater, these numbers also include the fresh water that is used in the suction and removal process. As an example, if the water-driven backup pump can remove 800 gallons every hour, it may include as much as 600 gallons of fresh water! 
3. It is absolutely imperative that the water-driven backup pump is installed correctly to ensure that the dirty sump pit water does not backflow into your municipal’s clean water supply. That would be disastrous!

As with all important components of your home, regular maintenance is the best method to prevent potential problems. If you would like to feel confident that your home is protected, we invite you to learn more about our battery back-up sump pump systems, please reach out to us: 1-866-277-1277 or click here to arrange for your complimentary inspection and estimate.