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I'm not really sure if this should be in the plumbing forum or electrical forum (or elsewhere).
We have a problem under our living room floor where it fills up with water. It seems the area must've been built on wet land as the water just comes up from below. The span is about 25m2 and if memory serves the 'natural' level is about 6 bricks high on a 9 brick high sleeper wall.
We had a (newer) sump pump installed December 2015 which cost about £450-£500 at the time. It was called a 'Smart Pump' and apparently has a Zoeller 53 pump inside a bucket. This was wired to a switch which is above the floor level in the event we may want to turn it off (although we never have). The pump would generally kick in every 7-10 minutes which the manufacturer said was perfectly fine.
All was well until the other day when i got up to find all the downstairs sockets were out. Story short it's the sump pump tripping it.
We contacted the electrician who installed it not really having any idea as to why it was doing this. He said he's 90% sure that the pump itself will be knackered & has advised on getting a new pump which he can/will wire in on its own separate circuit. He says that this is quite common.
Annoyingly, to access the pump we need to move out a number of tropical fish tanks, a heavy solid oak sideboard, a bookcase, lift the carpeting up to get to the access hatch.
I have a few questions here really and am just wondering the best course of action...
1) Why it likely happened? I'm an electrical dummy so i don't know if there's 1001 possibilities or only a small few.
The old pump that was in looked like a cheapy Screwfix type and it wasn't in its own bucket so it'll have been pulling all sorts of crud out ... yet it worked. This expensive one has gone knackered within 3.5 years.
2) Who's best to get out for this? It's tripping the electrics so our immediate thought was electrician.
It's a sump pump - so obviously pumping water, so then do you think plumber?
But it's installed in the first place because of damp, so do we get the original damp proofers out?
And then there's a pump engineer (who will probably want to disconnect the thing to check it over - so may then need an electrician, i don't know)?
3) After doing some browsing i've seen mention of a Zoeller M53 (don't know if the fact it says M53 makes it different to my Zoeller 53 or if M53 is its proper name) which has a plastic propeller but a Zoeller Z57 is cast iron. Am wondering if getting a different pump would be better.
In short what i know is the pump is tripping the electrics. Whether that's the pump that's faulty or the electrics i don't know. I'm at a loss as to the best course of action here so looking for advice.
We have a problem under our living room floor where it fills up with water. It seems the area must've been built on wet land as the water just comes up from below. The span is about 25m2 and if memory serves the 'natural' level is about 6 bricks high on a 9 brick high sleeper wall.
We had a (newer) sump pump installed December 2015 which cost about £450-£500 at the time. It was called a 'Smart Pump' and apparently has a Zoeller 53 pump inside a bucket. This was wired to a switch which is above the floor level in the event we may want to turn it off (although we never have). The pump would generally kick in every 7-10 minutes which the manufacturer said was perfectly fine.
All was well until the other day when i got up to find all the downstairs sockets were out. Story short it's the sump pump tripping it.
We contacted the electrician who installed it not really having any idea as to why it was doing this. He said he's 90% sure that the pump itself will be knackered & has advised on getting a new pump which he can/will wire in on its own separate circuit. He says that this is quite common.
Annoyingly, to access the pump we need to move out a number of tropical fish tanks, a heavy solid oak sideboard, a bookcase, lift the carpeting up to get to the access hatch.
I have a few questions here really and am just wondering the best course of action...
1) Why it likely happened? I'm an electrical dummy so i don't know if there's 1001 possibilities or only a small few.
The old pump that was in looked like a cheapy Screwfix type and it wasn't in its own bucket so it'll have been pulling all sorts of crud out ... yet it worked. This expensive one has gone knackered within 3.5 years.
2) Who's best to get out for this? It's tripping the electrics so our immediate thought was electrician.
It's a sump pump - so obviously pumping water, so then do you think plumber?
But it's installed in the first place because of damp, so do we get the original damp proofers out?
And then there's a pump engineer (who will probably want to disconnect the thing to check it over - so may then need an electrician, i don't know)?
3) After doing some browsing i've seen mention of a Zoeller M53 (don't know if the fact it says M53 makes it different to my Zoeller 53 or if M53 is its proper name) which has a plastic propeller but a Zoeller Z57 is cast iron. Am wondering if getting a different pump would be better.
In short what i know is the pump is tripping the electrics. Whether that's the pump that's faulty or the electrics i don't know. I'm at a loss as to the best course of action here so looking for advice.