Recently moved in to a place and am attempting to test the sump pump. Most information I can find online mentions that there will be a float switch somewhere to activate the pump but I am not seeing it any where on my unit.
Does this style of sump pump have the float switch inside of the case somewhere?
Is there some way I can manually switch this style of sump pump on? I have looked around on it and do not see any levers or other types of things that I can identify as a switch or float device.
Aside from manually switching the pump on I know I can add water to the pit to test it. I've started doing that but the pump hasn't turned on yet. I have filled in probably an inch or two to the pit. How do I know when I should expect the pump to turn on? I don't want to overfill it if it's actually broken and just not turning on for that reason.
Best Answer
Hard to be sure from that picture, but yes, it's probably an enclosed/caged float switch of some sort, and it should definitely take more than an inch or two to turn it on. Why? only pumping an inch or two is bad for the lifetime of the pump, which does most of its "wearing out" in the first few seconds it's switched on, so you want enough water that it's worth pumping for a while. If you get above the top of the pump itself (black parts) and it fails to turn on, something might be wrong with it, though before that point you might want to start with checking the outlet for power.
If the pump IS broken, the water will, barring a water influx event, tend to go back down where it started within minutes to hours. Since the pump is not turning on and the pit is not overflowing, you don't appear to have such an event going on right now.