Sump pumps

Have water comming into sump holes fast in basement. Needed another pump to keep up. Bought pump at HF store, lasted 2 hours, returned only to
find it must be sent away to somewhere to determine if they wiil honor warranty. Dirty trick to sell multiple pumps when you need another now. Perfect
way to increase sales!

I would try another brand of pump, maybe at another store. Some retail stores will make exchanges on defective products, some won't, but almost none can make warranty repairs, only the manufacturers can. This is a busy time of year for sump pump and sump pump repair sales.

The staff was surely treating you poorly. Plug it in, didn't work, here is the new one, or we can trade up for cost difference. GEE whiz you were flooding. Jim

. make sure the discharge home is dumping water so it will drain away from the house, not to the house .
Could not tell you how many times I have seen people pump water out of the sump, onto the lawn beside the house the water flows back to the house wall. Down to the sump and repeat the cycle again.

I think you should talk to the manager and express your dissatisfaction, that person may be able to refund your money. Always escalate your complaints if you at first don't get satisfaction at a lower level. Be polite but firm.

I would talk to the manager, he should be able to help you. I have bought some power tools from HF, never had a problem, so no experience with warranty. Something like this is bad publicity for HF, let us know how it turns out!

I have two sumps and both have backup pumps as well as primaries. I consider a sump pump to be critical equipment and as much as I do like HF I cannot imagine why you would buy a sump pump there??? If it isn't Zoeller or Grundfos (or maybe one other maker that I canna recall right now) I would not trust it. That is not an item to cheap out on.

I do buy some stuff at the HF store, but a sump pump isn't something I would even consider.

I pump against the water table, usually for a few months in the spring/early summer. This year I've been pumping since January. Right now I'm around 6 gal/min, but I've had 16 before... I want a good pump. Actually, I have 2 of them in a 24" crock.

I've been running Zoeller cast iron pumps since the original from when I bought the house died. I have about 5 years on the 1/3 hp m53 that does the dirty work. I just had to replace the switch on it a couple weeks ago. Not too bad for all the water it's moved for me. I also have a 1/2 hp m98 down there as a backup. It doesn't have much run time on it, but I don't doubt it's every bit as good as the little guy.

A sump pump is something I expect to work for a long time, especially if I could only get one in my crock. If the first harbor freight one only lasted 2 hours, how long will the next one go? There are a couple other american made pumps besides Zoeller. If I were you, I'd spend the money on a good pump and sleep well at night....

My $.02 worth.

We are no strangers to sump pumps! There have been periods of over 12 months where the sump pump was running every day. VERY high water table here.

One thing I discovered is, with our soil, I had to extend the drain farther out. The water used to go about 40 feet away, then get discharged onto the ground. The ground between there and the house would remain dry. I figured out that we were still having the drain water soaking into the ground, right back towards the house, so I doubled the drain length, which finally allowed the pump to run far less. Still, our poor little pump chugs out about 1,600 gallons of water every 3 hours (currently). And we haven't even had our first good rainfall of the year yet! :shock:

I bought the cheapest one from Harbour Freight 3 years ago and it's still working. What's wrong with it? They won't pump trash. I put a screen to block any trash. Also I put a timer on mine because it would kick on and off too much.

I pulled my M53 this winter. Got 15 years out of it. Think the switch is bad but have not been able to get the screws out yet. Been soaking the screws for 2 months. The water softner dumps in with it. Bought another Zoeller.

For some homes, the sump pump is the last barrier for you to prevent hundreds or thousands of dollars damage to your home & contents? I would want a pump that I know will work and has a good reputation. Cheap wouldn't be on my mind. If your home is at risk of flooding, a secondary system should be high on your list.

If you have a secondary system, you should incorporate some form of alert that it is running, and for you to check out the primary pump & get it repaired soon.

A good secondary pump is one that runs off of city water, if you have access to it. Yes, cost more to run, but it'll be there to keep your house dry, even during a power failure.

A friend bought a battery back up system for his sump. It was much smaller than his primary. A few years ago, during a storm, he lost power. The insufficient pump couldn't keep up, and his basement still flooded.

My son's first house had a sump pump. It ran nearly all the time. We replaced it one day, gearing up for a race track speed change out, but to our suprise, the water level climbed 6" higher, then didn't climb any higher in his sump. He was trying to pump the local water table down. Raised the pump, and it hardly ever ran again.

As others have mentioned, is the topography of your yard causing part of your problem? Has something in the neighborhood changed, funneling more water towards your house? I hope your house wasn't built under water in the first place. My brother's house, for years, was always damp in one corner, even with a sump pump. We looked around outside. His landscaping caused surface water to run towards the house. On top of that, the down spout for the majority of the front of his house simply dumped on the ground at the corner of the house, with no place to go other than down. A 10' piece of PVC pipe burried to lower ground dried up his basement for good.

Best of luck....

Three things I don't buy at HF: condoms, parachutes and sump pumps.

(quoted from post at 13:18:14 04/14/20) Three things I don't buy at HF: condoms, parachutes and sump pumps.

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That is the best advice I thinkI have ever seen! Awesome.

Poor quality pumps in general and sump pumps in particular are a poor investment and a constant headache. Just when you're sound asleep during a rainstorm and the sump pump quits you ain't gonna be happy the next morning. Look for the best quality pump for a few extra bucks and peace of mind. Little Giant pumps have been good for us.

There is only ONE sump pump to buy, and it is a LIBERTY. Made in western New York state, they have a 50 amp rated switch on them. ALL other pumps have a maximum 15 amp rated switch. The single most frequent reason for failure in a sump pump is the switch. Get one that has an overbuilt switch!

Harbor Freight has replaced pumps for me with no questions asked.