How to Clean a Sump Pump

Across North America, many areas are currently experiencing extreme weather, including abnormally high levels of rainfall that leads to flooding.

If you don’t already have a sump pump, now may be the time to consider having one installed to protect your basement and/or your home’s foundation from flooding and water damage. If you do have a sump pump, it’s crucial that your system is prepared to perform when it needs to, even outside of extreme weather during typical rain or snowfall.

Like any other home appliance or piece of equipment, your sump pump needs to be cleaned to function at its absolute best. Regular sump pump cleaning will go a long way to ensure that your system is able to do what it’s supposed to do: pump water away from your home.

If your sump pump isn’t working properly or functioning at its usual capacity, giving it a good cleaning could be the first step in solving your problem.

At Lenox Plumbing, we recommend you clean your sump pump at least once a year or more depending on the groundwater levels near your home and your sump pump’s activity. If you don’t feel as though you can properly clean your sump pump yourself, no problem. Give Lenox Plumbing a call and our expert plumbers will get the job done for you, safely and efficiently.

If you do want to learn how to clean a sump pump on your own, or you’d like to be more familiar with the process, follow these 8 simple steps:

1. Disconnect the power to your sump pump. Safety first! Before you do anything else, make sure you unplug your sump pump from the wall or turn it off from your home’s circuit breaker or electrical panel. Double check to make sure that no appliances that may drain into the sump pit, like a washing machine or a utility sink, are running.
2. Prepare yourself and the surrounding area. Cleaning a sump pump can be messy, so make sure that you line the ground with plastic or old towels to catch any water that may drip from the system. To clean the pump itself, you will need a bucket, a plastic scraper or a putty knife, and access to a garden hose. It’s also a good idea to wear protective gloves anytime you’re working with gray water.
3. Disconnect the sump pump from the discharge pipe. Now that your sump pump is disconnected from the power, turned off and your area is prepared, you will need to disconnect the sump pump from the discharge pipe.
4. Remove the sump pump from the pit. Next, you’ll need to remove the sump pump from the sump pit and bring it outside, or wherever you plan to clean it. We recommend cleaning it outside if possible to avoid damaging floors or other fixtures inside of your home, and also so you can have easy access to a hose. This is also where the plastic floor covering or old towels come in handy. When removing the sump pump, carry it over the protective floor coverings and/or wrap up the pump itself to avoid spillage.
5. Clean the pump. A garden hose will work best in this situation, but you can use a hose or a washing method of your choice to start cleaning the sump pump and rinse off dirt, sludge or any other debris that has collected on the outside of the pump. Use a plastic scraper or putty knife to chip off caked on debris, and then leave the sump pump somewhere where it can safely dry.
6. Drain standing water from the sump pit. Remove any standing water from the sump pit or sump basin with a wet dry vacuum or a shop vac before returning the newly cleaned sump pump to the pit.
7. Drain the check valve. If your sump pump has a check valve that can be disassembled, you can carefully take it apart and let any lingering water drain from the system. After the check valve is drained, you can also remove it from the discharge pipe, rinse it out with water, dry the pieces and then put it back together and place it back into the pipe.
8. Reattach the sump pump to the discharge pipe and turn it back on. Once your sump pump and the related components are thoroughly cleaned and dry, you can place the sump back back into the sump basin, reattach it to the discharge pipe, and either plug it back into the wall or turn the circuit breaker or electrical panel back on.

Next Steps

At this point, you are finished cleaning your sump pump! If you were conducting a regular, annual sump pump cleaning, then you are all set. You can continue to use your appliances and sit through rainstorms knowing that your sump pump is working at its best to protect your home.

If you were cleaning out your sump pump in an attempt to solve a problem but the problem still persists, call a licensed plumber so they can come out and help you determine what may be wrong with your system as well as what steps you should take next.