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Test your sump pump before the storm comes

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1The short version

A sump pump does nothing at all for months at a time, and the one night it actually has to work is the worst possible night to find out it doesn't. It empties a basin fed either by a waterproofing system's perimeter drains or by rain and groundwater seepage when the basement sits below the water table. It sends that water somewhere it's no longer a problem: a municipal storm drain, a dry well, or simply downhill and away from the house.

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2How it actually fails

A sump pump's most common failure isn't the motor, it's the float switch, the small arm that senses rising water and tells the pump to turn on. A stuck or disconnected float means water can rise well past the point where the pump should have kicked in, with nothing visibly wrong until the basement is already wet. Power loss during the exact storm that's filling the sump is the other classic failure, which is the whole argument for a battery backup.

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3The two-minute test

Lift the float by hand, or pour a bucket of water into the basin, and confirm the pump kicks on, moves water, and shuts off again on its own. That single cycle tests the float switch, the motor and the discharge line all at once, which is most of what can actually go wrong.

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4What it takes, and what goes wrong

The test itself takes two minutes and a bucket; the failure it prevents takes days to dry out and a lot longer to stop smelling like it. A discharge line that empties too close to the foundation defeats the whole system the same way a bad downspout does, sending the water right back to where it came from.

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