I recently replaced a leaking water heater for the Pastor at my church and was told that the basement has flooded several times over the years from different sources. I noticed that there was no battery back-up system for the sump pump and mentioned this to the Pastor. "The sump pump hardly comes on anymore. The last time that I heard it was about 2 weeks ago."  I asked how old the sump pump was and he couldn't tell me, so he asked me to come back and replace it.

 

When I came back to replace the sump pump, I found that the existing pump was not working at all. "Father, you need to come down to the basement and give this pump Last Rites because it's dead." was what I told the Pastor. I'm not sure how long the pump had not been working, but the good news is that I caught this before the basement flooded again.

 

The average life of a sump pump is 3-5 on average and this is relative to use. I've had to replace some pumps after 2 years and replaced others that have lasted over 10 years. The other important thing to remember when replacing sump pumps is to replace the check valve if it is more than 5 years old. The check valve is the device that prevents water from flowing back into the sump pit after the pump shuts off.