We are babysitting the three grandkids this weekend. Of course not long after I got home from work last night the middle one comes running upstairs yelling, "grandpa, there's something happening in the basement!" The panic in his voice made me think I better go see. Fortunately the lad was smart enough to alert me that the sump pump was spraying water out the top!
There wasn't a lot of water in the pit so I didn't think it was too overly serious. I just unplugged the pump and looked the situation over. It sounded like there was an air leak, and there was no water coming in, so I decided to wait til morning to look into it.
This morning I sucked all the water out of the pit and it appeared the rubber connector with the check valve was cockeyed. Then it dawned on me to check the drain hose outside. This summer I'd changed how I pumped the water outside. There used to be an underground tank the water was pumped into. It appeared to be full or plugged or something, so I just pumped it into a hose onto the lawn. Well, apparently the hose wasn't set for proper draining and it was frozen solid. This blockage caused the water pressure to force the rubber connector loose and that was the problem.
So I removed the outside hose and put it in the garage to thaw. Then I simply loosened the clamps, epositioned the pump in the pit and, and it seems to be fixed.
Fortunately I had three little helpers to make it go well. It was actually a really good thing they were here. We probably wouldn't have been in the basement otherwise. Plus the oldest was a good flashlight holder. So it all worked out alright.
