Smart/remote monitoring of outlet for sump pump?

Question

Thanks in advance for your help!

Situation: Got water in the garden unit of a 3-flat investment property about a week ago, got a new cast iron 3/4 hp sump pump, confirmed that it worked.  Got more water yesterday, checked on sump pump today, unplugged/plugged it back in and it went for a straight hour, pumping everything that it should have been draining during the entire evening's storm.  Circuit didn't seem to trip, maybe it just stalled?

Currently I have a Nest cam on it so if we get any rain, I can monitor it from my phone and listen in/watch to make sure it's starting.  This is a stopgap obviously, and for a permanent solution I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a device that connects to wifi that could monitor outlet-specific usage, so during a rainstorm I could check on my phone and be reassured that this specific outlet the pump is plugged into has been active for 20 minutes in the past hour, for example.

Please relieve me of the constant running back and forth to the property and please help me stop wasting buckets of water i've been pouring down the drain to test the pump :)

Rishi B. · Answer

Update: purchased and installed this to make sure the sump pump was using some energy on a habitual basis (especially over the rainy weekend in Chicago) as well as two of these in places that water has seeped before.  Both are working great - easy to set up, each has an intuitive app, and I can customize the types of alerts I receive.  Would highly recommend for a landlord's peace of mind if nothing else - thanks all for the advice and suggestions!

Megan R. · Answer

Thought i would add to this post as its something I'm pretty passionate about lately.

In my buildings, we have installed a Marcell PRO unit to monitor sump pump failures (water leaks) or HVAC issues.  It uses pre-set up cellular data rather than wifi (which costs about 15 bucks a month if you pay for the year) - however - I have found this is absolutely necessary as it works during a power outage when you need it the most.   Only takes a few mins to set up and has some nifty features like historical data and text, phone or email alerts.

Wifi stuff doesnt work unless like steve said - you install a UPS system or generator.

Ron Rohrssen · Answer

There has been a lot of suggestions here of various technology solutions, most of which would seem to rely on electricity and possibly a battery for backup.

A generator is an expensive option, and you may be relying on the tenant to get it running. Unless, you're considering an automatic switch-over generator which can run several thousands of dollars.

I've heard of a few homeowners in our area that have gone a different route and found these city-water powered systems to work quite well and you don't have to rely on electricity, a battery, or a tenant to manually intervene.

I haven't used one of these myself. I'm hoping to hear from anyone following this about their experiences with this: https://www.plumbingsupply.com/guardian-emergency-...

It's designed to be a backup system, not the primary. But I'd think the peace of mind, may well be worth it.

Features:

• The float switch detects high water levels
• The activation valve responds to the float switch and starts the pump
• Drive water from city water supply enters the pump
• Pressurized city water flows into the nozzle
• The nozzle converts this water into high velocity
• This high velocity creates a vacuum at the top of the nozzle
• The vacuum draws water from the sump through the suction screen
• The water flows up into the discharge pipe - thus removed from the sump

Also, I noticed the Home Depot sells a similar product for a lot less $$$

http://www.homedepot.com/p/AquaPro-Submersible-Water-Powered-Emergency-Backup-Sump-Pump-35034-5/206852259

Steve Babiak · Answer

Some UPS devices designed for computers have an alert for power outages. Link where this is discussed:

http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/cell-email-notifica...

Joe Splitrock · Answer

You can convert from 1 1/2" at the pump to 2". Larger pipe just means the pump doesn't need to work as hard, but 1 1/2" is fine too.

Rishi B. · Answer

interesting you say that @Joe Splitrock, my contractor also advised me to get a 2" drain line but even the most powerful sump pumps at HD were 1 1/4 to 1 1/2";  only sewage pumps were compatible with 2"

Rishi B. · Answer

@Andy D. thanks, yes I see a number of items of this nature on Amazon but many seem to be focused on being able to turn on/off an outlet remotely, whereas my main need is to know during what times the outlet is supplying power, because of how a sump pump activates only when the bobber is at that certain level.  Some devices only seem to tell you how much usage it gets during a certain day, which for my purposes isn't ideal since the pump also pumps the drainage from two washing machines I've got down there.  I want to be able to check at 2am during a rainstorm that the pump went for 10 minutes each of the last 3 hours, for example.  It seems there are some that have this ability, and am reading through the specs of the products currently, but was just seeing if anyone had a specific recommendation :).

@Chris T. wow, didn't even know these existed, but am definitely getting a set as a plan B if the pump monitoring solution I end up with fails!  @Aaron McKeehan are you developing something similar?

@Deanna McCormick @Kelly N. generator arriving this week, parging starts next Tuesday!

@Jeff Sprunger definitely thanks for the caution, this is on the same level as the garden unit but outside the actual unit and tenants were notified :)  @Colleen F. am on red alert if the power/internet goes out because my phone would explode with notifications :)

Thanks all for the help!

Jeff Sprunger · Answer

AND, do you have something in writing from the tenant allowing you to have a video feed with sound capability in their unit, even if it is in the basement/crawl space?  that could come back to bite you later! just sayin'

Smart/remote monitoring of outlet for sump pump?

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