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When It Will Not Stop

Continuous running is a symptom with four common causes, and they are not equally expensive.

The gist

Four things make a pump run continuously and only one of them is the pump: a float stuck down, a check valve letting water back, a discharge line blocked or frozen, and genuinely high groundwater. Telling them apart takes minutes and changes the quote.

Pit and Pump is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands, and a discharge connection is usually a permitted alteration — ask to see the permit. We carry out no work, we sell no equipment, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

The four

The float is stuck up. Debris, or the float caught against the side of a pit that is too narrow for it. Free, if it is this.
Water is coming back. A failed or missing check valve, returning the same water to the pit.
The pit really is refilling. A high water table after sustained rain, a spring, or surface water reaching the foundation because a gutter or grade sends it there.
The pump has lost capacity. A worn impeller or a blocked inlet screen moves less than it did, so it runs longer for the same water.

Telling them apart

Unplug the pump for a moment with the pit full and watch the level. If it keeps rising on its own, the ground is genuinely wet and the pump is doing its job — look outside before you look at the pump. If it falls back and stays, the float or the valve is the place to start.

Do not leave it unplugged. That is a ten-second check, not a diagnosis.

Before you replace anything, look outside

A remarkable share of “my pump runs constantly” is a downspout discharging beside the foundation, or ground that falls toward the house rather than away from it. Both put roof and surface water into the ground exactly where the pit will have to lift it out again.

That costs nothing to check and it is the one cause a new pump makes no difference to at all.

Where to go next

Done the bucket test?If the pump ran and cleared the pit, you may not need us at all. If it did not, or if you want the discharge looked at, we will route you to somebody who covers your area — the ZIP code is all we need to find them. Free to you. The line is not restricted to sump work; any plumbing job can go through it.

Call (888) 515-3188