Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[DUNBAR PLUMBING]

A repeat customer of Dunbar Plumbing contacted us over the weekend stating that their sump pump that we installed over 3 years ago was not shutting off inside the pit. Zoeller pumps, the M53 model is a popular and well used brand in the Northern Kentucky area.


It was mentioned early on that this pump would not go any distance in longevity due to the circumstances of how rapidly the water enters the pit and the frequency during heavy rains and storms where lots of water falls from the sky.

For years, the M53 was the only product available in this particular application, short of moving to another brand. The "pump" itself is a great product, it's the switch that goes into failure mode that prevents any considerable distance in terms of years.

That doesn't mean that a Zoeller M53 can't go 10 years... it can. It's all dictated by the number of times the switch is engaged.

On the M53 model Zoeller sump/dewatering pump, the float switch is incorporated into the design of the pump made into a stainless steel bar that is suspended above the pump. In this design, a large fiber spun float is tethered by 2 armatures, one at the top that is switch operated to engage the pump and the other is fixed at the bottom providing stability for the raise and lower of the switch.

Given that this float switch operates in a predetermined range that is in total the height of the pump itself (approximately 10" in height) the amount of water the pump removes is harshly limited. Most if not all pumps are placed in the bottom of a sump pit, below where the incoming footer drains enter the pit.


Footer drains usually consist of flexible corrugated drain tile that is either solid or slotted, and provides the piped design of carrying water minus sediment or gravel into the pit so the sump pump can remove and discharge to a different elevation, piping that leads to either an outside drain or public storm sewer.

Below is a picture of the Zoeller M53 Dewatering/Sump Pump:

[DUNBAR PLUMBING]

Since the last time we installed this pump, and knowing the situation presented by the location of the pit, a new product has become available in resolving this age old issue with the switch being nonmovable to the location of gaining the largest water table.


The N53 by Zoeller is a pump that does not have a switch incorporated into the design. The pump is minus a switch and an external switch is utilized to set the float at a level where the largest table of water can be gained. This product by far has been the best design found on the market. This is not a tethered float switch that is free floating in a pit. Dunbar Plumbing will not install or use this design as there are too many opportunities where the float can lose its adjustment and either cause a failure by not working right, or getting caught up inside the pit and forcing the pump to either not work or continue running until burnout.

The N53 offers the guarantee that it will be the last sump pump the property owner has installed, with the notion that the switch assembly "will" fail in some time. The external switch has considerable more life to the design as opposed to the switch design made by the former M53 sump pump by Zoeller.

During the replacement of this N53 Zoeller sump pump, we replaced the inline check valve that was 1.5" discharge. As always, we made sure the 3/16" hole was drilled into the discharge pipe between the check valve and pump to prevent air lock.

Below is a picture of the N53 Zoeller Sump Pump:

[Tags:]

Tags: sump pump  defective pump  zoeller  zoeller pump  flooded basement  M53 N53 mighty mate