Smoking sump pump

I was not actually smoking sump pump, but the sump pump was smoking when I got to the church yesterday morning.

I went into the kitchen shortly after arriving to see if the pipes were froze. They weren't. But I thought I heard a low hum. I followed my ear into the far corner and, sure enough, the sump pump was running non-stop. So I moved all the crap out of the way so I could get to the hole it sits in behind the oven (I have no idea why most of that stuff is piled there over the sump pump). As I pulled the cover off it was a smokin' away. So, I unplugged the pump. When it's below zero there shouldn't be much water running into it anyway.

At first I thought the float was stuck or that the switch had gone bad, but after looking at it, I thought maybe the drain pipe was frozen. I called Scott (I needed to call him anyway) and he came in and we tore things apart. Sure enough, the entire length of pipe that went through the wall was solid ice. We kind of broke a few pieces of pipe, so we just did a temporary fix with a piece of flex pipe. Scott said he would fix it right once it warmed up some.

That's the first time I know of that this has ever happened. Not sure what the deal is. At any rate, I hope we don't have any smokin' sump pumps any more.