Depending on where you live, you could have a place right in a high-water table area where the occasional unpleasant storm leads to water flooding everywhere you look. When you care about the foundation of your home, and the décor and furniture in certain rooms, it’s distressing when experiencing your first flooding situation. Hopefully, the insurance was enough to cover it, but the pain and suffering involved was immeasurable too. And it can mostly all be avoided with some preparation ahead of time. Here are some of the benefits of owning a battery backup sump pump.
- Increase water pumping ability
The typical pumping power of a backup battery sump pump is often less than a regular sump pump. However, not all units are similarly powered. Some offer higher horsepower and can project water upwards by 10 feet, so it can escape quickly. In this way, it’s possible to increase the water pumping capabilities when adding a backup sump pump.
- Self-test to Check Battery Status
It’s necessary that the backup sump pump is checked regularly to ensure its battery is fully charged. When this is done, the sump pump should operate reliably. Self-tests provide confidence that at least one sump pump will kick into gear to start pumping water out of the basement or lowest floor in the building just when it’s needed.
- Runs Even When Power Cuts Causing Main Sump Pump to Not Startup
Owning a backup sump pump means that even when the sump pump fails to work because there’s an electrical cut during a heavy storm, at least one pump that will start operating whether you’ve there or not. That is, of course, when it’s been charged sufficiently to retain enough power to kickstart the pump from the battery’s power source.
- Peace of Mind
With a backup sump pump, as a homeowner you have a peace of mind that owning a residential sump pump alone simply cannot provide. Owning one but not the other is like only having half the system because you’re totally dependent on the electrical supply to protect your basement. It becomes the Achilles heel that can let you down in the middle of a storm exactly when power often shorts out in the local neighborhood.
- Avoids Total Loss Due to Primary Pump Malfunction
The main sump pump can fail. It could be a mechanical failure, a problem with the power outlet or something else completely different. Its hose could be blocked up preventing successful pumping out of water – the pump is working but the flow of water is stopped. In which case, the basement or other location fails to have water pushed out.
However, when there’s a backup sump pump that’s separately powered and using different hoses for the outflow of water, then it’s a different that protects the home.
- Second Pump to Take the Strain
A backup system is also there to take the strain when the primary pump is struggling. This could be due to a failing pump or because too much water is flowing into the basement beyond the capacity of the sump pump to pump it out faster. In this situation, the backup pump kicks in to work in tandem with the primary sump pump thereby increasing the total output capacity to stem the tide of inflowing water and rising water levels.