Sump Pump Running Continuously

[michdawson]

I have a 10-yr old pebble tech pool with a sump pump installed deep in the ground nearby. The previous owners installed this pump due to the clay soil and sporadic heavy rains we receive in Northern California. My problem: we had a very heavy rain recently and my sump pump has been running on/off every 5-10 seconds for several days. Not much water was coming out today, so opened up the sump pump well (it's DEEP, 8-9 feet and narrow) and discovered the electric pump was running, then water is draining back into the well. Or my pump may be becoming too sensitive and needs adjusting/replacing. In any case, it's not running as it should.

How does one access a pump that's securely fastened so deep in a such a tight spot? I couldn't see any information from others with this problem, and find it hard to believe the builders didn't make this accessible for replacing.

thanks for any/all help!
Michael

[aylad]

bumping this up to see if anybody can help?

Janet

[Poconos]

Michael, Welcome to the forum.
When you say the water was draining back into the well, what exactly do you mean? Is it draining back through the sump pump when it turns off, siphoning, or is water just seeping in like it is expected to do? If it's back through the pump then there may be a bad check valve in the line if one was installed originally to keep water from flowing backwards. Where does it dump? If it's just dumping on the surface somewhere then that eliminates the siphoning idea. As for getting the pump out....just one idea. If it's wedged in somehow from age maybe you could fashion some kind of hook from rebar to grab it around the body and yank it out. If you grab it right you should be able to put a lot more pull on it than you could using the hose or pipe that's connected to it.
Just a couple thoughts for now.
Al

[michdawson]

Thanks for the helpful reply Poconos. When I said the water is draining back into the well, I meant that I'm fairly sure the water is running up the 8' pipe and then flowing back into well reservoir (repeatedly). I'm pretty sure this is happening because if I disconnect the power to the pump, the water level stays fairly constant...its not outside water constantly seeping in. The water goes up the 8' PVC pipe and underground to a swale about 100' away. The check valve idea makes a lot of sense -- where would one be installed normally? Near the joint at the top of the well?

Secondary question, any idea why sump pumps are put in near pools like this? Is this to maintain the integrity of the pool by not letting the ground get too saturated? I noticed the depth of the pump is just below (and next to) the lowest point of the pool's deep end.

Thanks!

[Poconos]

OK on the return flow, since when the pump is off the well doesn't fill up quickly then there is no siphoning. If the far end of the dump pipe was underwater at the swale then it would siphon back. A check valve is usually at the pump and I think in some wells there is one at the top also. In your case of a shallow well, one at the top would work just fine. With deep wells the one at the bottom keeps a solid charge of liquid water in the pipe when the pump is off. The reason for the pump in the first place is as you suggested. They keep the external water pressure on the pool from possibly floating the liner if the ground water gets higher than the pool water level. In your case, no liner, it still maintains a positive pressure on the pool walls.
Al