

I’ve done a lot of digging (pun intended) on pumps and if you wanna save some $, get a 1/3hp Little Giant at Menards. They’re full cast iron, they have a vertical float, and they’re under $200.


I’ve done a lot of digging (pun intended) on pumps and if you wanna save some $, get a 1/3hp Little Giant at Menards. They’re full cast iron, they have a vertical float, and they’re under $200.



precisely, yup.
note: to be to code, you need 1 back flow valve per pump, so keep that in mind. you’ll need 2.
I’ve had a ridge for years and it’s held up very well. I recommend blue loctite on the screws, with that it’s been pretty much invincible


Was this with a finger? Gloves? Curious as to the technique…exquisite


That’s a good point…I have a new furnace, and I’ve been here several years without pipes freezing (knock on wood).


iphone :0



I’m using them to monitor via Grafana


It gets very cold where I live. I should look into an auto shut off of the battery charger if it dips too cold in my basement. Unlikely to go below 32F but you never know. The BMS will do it itself, but I’d rather not rely on it.


Every device and power cable has a label. So if the instructions say “disconnect ATS from Inverter”, you just look for for two devices with those labels.


It’s AVD. Bro, do you know of consumer level F-500? That seems like pro shit you’d have to have a contractor install AFAIK lol.


Yessir, 'cause you know when I need to actually work on this thing…it’ll be in the middle of a storm, when the power is out, and the water is rising in the pit, and I’ll be stressed outta my gourd. So I’ll need battery powered lights, and tools sitting right there, and instructions on how to connect and disconnect everything, so I don’t actually have to think under pressure :D


Oh you are so right…there’s a reason the battery is 6.5 feet off the ground, and the frame is hanging from the joists with structural screws so nothing can get knocked over… kids man…yea, if they unplug all the stuff at the bottom, I’ll get an email stating as much. And I’ve screwed everything to the board, so at least they won’t be able to pull anything off.


The all-in-ones are nice, but expensive. I specifically went with high quality (but individually purposed) components, to save some money and also make repairs and replacements easier & cheaper.
The inverter is an AIMS pure sine wave (not modified) rated to 2000w continuous and 4000w peak. I chose it so that I could safely throw any consumer sump pump rated for a 15amp receptacle at it without worry. If you’re careful and considerate, you could downgrade to a 1500w/3000w or even 1000w/2000w inverter if you’re positive the pumps won’t exceed the limits (would work on smaller 1/3hp systems, etc).
The current setup handles my Zoeller M95 that peaks at 16.5A with ease.
Regarding monitoring, the white cables are ZWave devices, I have set up to measure current and power draw.


For the core backup system with the battery, inverter, ATS, charger, circuit breaker, etc. Right around $900 or so.
I’ve calculated it to do 400ish cycles. So if my pumps turn on every 5 minutes, it’ll go about 33 hours.


That’s why I have a circuit breaker on the positive feed line. Kills the circuit at the amperage that begins to melt the cable.


There’s a lot of variables involved in sump pump systems. I don’t have any qualms with rumba’s comments, they’ve added to the conversation.


It’s a tradeoff. You can “raw dog” the wall outlet, and hope that a surge doesn’t fry your shit.
I have a little widget that absorbs electricity and basically kills itself and sounds an alarm if there’s a significant surge in a thunderstorm. The tradeoff is that I have to resolve the situation by either swapping in a new, unkilled widget or remove the dead one and plug everything directly into the wall, before the battery back up runs out of power.


No laptop…she only has a phone
Oh that’s easy - the Zanclean flood.
What is now the Mediterranean sea used to be a land mass full of grass fields. A few million years ago, the Strait of Gibraltar gave way and hundreds of millions of cubic feet of water poured in. It’s debated how long it took to fill up the Mediterranean. Could’ve been weeks, could’ve been decades. But for whatever period it was, it’d be nuts to sit there and watch it all unfold.