Holy sump pump cycle

[dugkil]

I moved into a new home at the bottom of a hill and my sump pits cycle like crazy. I have two of them. I'm about 200 yards from the river, but the water rolls down the hill and I swear falls right into my pits.

The river side sump pit cycles every 10-15 seconds. The hill side one cycles about every minute during rain.

It's not much better when it's not raining. I went and asked around to a few neighbors if they were experiencing the same issue. And yes. My neighbor on the riverside has 3 sump pits and they cycle "a lot". The neighbor across from me has 2 sump pits and he cycles as much as me and his whole yard is a pool during heavy rain.

I'm looking for the best solution to keep basement dry...2 sump pumps per pit and a battery back up with an outside generac is the most costly solution I can think of.

Any ideas. I can take pics or videos of anything you guys need. Thanks for the help ahead of time.

 

[frodo]

any way you can shape your yard to keep the water at bay? a berm

 

[Mr_David]

Flood the basement and go swimming.

You said new! Or just New to you.

If the sump pit can handle more water, maybe adjust the float to allow it to fill longer before it pumps it out.
also check to make sure that water being pumped out is not flowing back into sump.

Should be a check valve close to the pump.

 

[Mr_David]

Pictures would be helpful.

 

[dugkil]

The house is new to me, built in the 1950's.

The first thing I did when I moved in was ran 4" PVC about 200ft away from my house to a "river" that flows into a culvert and down to the river. That was my first guess when I saw all the water in my sump pits that essentially, that I was short cycling the water. I installed two brand new check valves as well.

I've come to terms with the underground water....I'm just looking for smart ways to pump it out.

I do like tether switch...but hear they can hang up and defeat the whole purpose of the pump. The Zoellers are working great, but the pump on/off cycle is only about 4 inches in my pit.

Would it be bad to raise the pump up near the top of the pit to slow down the cycles?

 

[speedbump]

The bigger the swing of the float, the better. The higher the water level in the pit, the less the pump will cycle.

If I had your problem, I would be looking at putting well points around the house, manifold them together and hooking them to a single pump that would keep the area around your house de-watered. If that interests you, take a look at: http://www.drillyourownwell.com/ Mike the Website owner makes it look pretty easy.