Expert Q&A: How do I size my sump or sewage basin?

[Video Transcript]

Hi, this is Jim here; the sump pump product expert with Sump Pumps Direct. We'll talk a little bit today about basins and sizing basins for sump pits or sewage pits, whatever you want to call it.

Typical size for a sump pit is going to be about 18 x 22 to 18 x 24 like you see here. You get into sewage basins and you get into the 18 x 30 or larger. What they're going to be able to say is you don't want to oversize the pump that's going in that pit. You don't want too powerful of a pump in there, but you can never really oversize a basin large enough.

If you want to put in a larger basin at 30 x 40 or 24 x 36 for some, that's going to just be more of an advantage for your pump. You're not going to be cycling as much, you're going to have more volume of water to deal with for that pump per cycle. It's not going to be cycling as often. It's always a good thing for the pump. You're not always able to do something like that, but you want to get at least an 18 x 22 or 18 x 24 basin for your sump.

People call and say, "well I only got a 10 inch basin or 5 gallon bucket in that floor down there." It's not going to fit a lot of pumps in there. You're not going to have a lot of options. If we look at some of the primary pumps over here instead of looking at what basins they're going to be requiring for some of these and compare some of these. You're going to be pretty limited in what you can do.

Now, you do have some options on this. You can do the liberty pump, won't actually fit in a 10 inch basin. The simmer pump will fit in a 10 inch basin, those are probably two of the ones that are going to fit in a smaller basin you'll be able to get away with. You don't want to typically go into anything probably larger than a third horsepower pump. Just make sure you know what kind of head flow you're dealing with and horizontal pumping distance.

Head lift, we talked about head lift. That's your vertical discharge going straight up in that pipe coming off your pump and then how far you're pumping. Typically it's about 8 feet up, 8 to 10 feet up and maybe 5 to 20 to 30 feet out. Again, most any standard third horse power pump can handle that. But again, with those basins you want to make sure you've got that basin sized properly that way we can get enough in there. Again, a standard 18 inch basin will fit a standard primary pump and a battery backup or just about any combination system in there. That's a quick lesson on that. If you have any other questions feel free to give me a call. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.

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