The Annual Service, in FEMA’s Own Order

Once a year, and sooner for one part

FEMA asks for the pump to be assessed once a year, and says the inlet screen is worth cleaning more often than that. The screen is the part that silts up, and a silted screen starves a pump that is otherwise in perfect order.

Source: FEMA, Maintain your Sump Pump.

The ten-year line

That last symptom is worth separating from the others. Frequent cycling is often not the pump at all — it is water running back down the discharge pipe into the pit, which is a check valve problem rather than a pump problem.

The nine steps

In FEMA’s order, and none of them needs a contractor:

1. Turn off the breaker and unplug the power cord.
2. Disconnect the pump from the discharge pipe.
3. Lift the pump out of the pit.
4. Clean the debris off it with a garden hose.
5. Clean the inlet screen with a wire brush.
6. Inspect the check valve.
7. Check the owner’s manual for whether the bearings need lubricating — many sealed pumps do not.
8. Reconnect everything and restore power.
9. Pour a bucket of water into the pit. The pump should start.

Step nine is the whole test and it takes a minute. It is also the only step that tells you the float works, which is the part that fails most often and the part that cannot be checked by looking.

When to call somebody instead

If the pump runs but no water leaves, if it does not start with a full pit and a clean float, if the breaker trips when it starts, or if there is standing water around the outside of the pit rather than in it — those are not maintenance.

So is any discharge line that has to be moved. That is usually a permitted alteration and it is worth having somebody who knows the local rule do it once.

Where to go next

• Testing it properly
• What actually fails
• When the power goes