Jacob’s Blog

Project 360 has found new life these holidays :) I’m making a push to get the plumbing, air exchange, stand, and canopy complete before Christmas. Everything has been on hold for so long I needed to go back and refresh myself with my own designs. This included checking my sump design, so I decided to throw this together…

The tool below will help you determine how much the water level in your sump will increase when the power is off. There are some notes on use below. DISCLAIMER - Use at your own risk! I’m not responsible for any losses you may suffer from use of this information.

Notes:

1. 1) Since return lines are below the surface they will cause a siphon when power is lost. A typical solution is to drill a small (1/16 to 1/8 inch) hole in each return line somewhere below the water surface to act as a siphon break. For instance, if the hole is drilled 1 inch below the water surface, then the water level will drop 1 inch then the hole will be exposed to air and the siphon will stop.
2. 2) The volume of water in the piping between sump and tank is most likely less than 1 gallon. For reference the following are gallons per 100 feet: 3/4″=2.8g, 1″=4.5g, 1 1/2″=10g, 2″=17g
3. 3) The sump operating water level is determined by the height of baffles in the sump and by how high above the baffles the water is filled to (by you). Running at the maximum sump water level is not recommended. Allow for as much ‘head space’ as possible to deal with the unexpected.