What to Do With a Dripping Noise Coming From Your Sump Pump Pit
When you hear a dripping noise coming from your sump pump pit, the first thing you may be wondering is if it’s okay if you hear that sound.
The answer is that it is perfectly normal for a dripping sound to come from your sump pit, but it may be annoying nonetheless. Only in some cases does it require a fix, which we’ll cover below. In most cases, though, you may still want to fix the sound just because you don’t want to hear it.
In this short article, we’ll first explain why you may be hearing drops falling into your sump pit, and secondly when you can do to mitigate this annoying sound.
Why You hear drops falling in your sump pump pit
The dripping sound that you’re hearing very likely comes from a pipe entering your pit. That’s okay, because that’s the pipe’s job.
There’s a drainage system installed around the foundation of your house which collects excess water and deposits it into your pit. From there, your sump pump will pump the water out and away from the house. That’s the function of the machine: to prevent the water table underneath your house from rising to a level where it starts seeping through the walls of your basement. So the dripping sound is an indication that this part of the system works!
But now you may ask if it is supposed to fall into water, since that’s the only way it could make that distinct dripping sound. Shouldn’t your sump pump pit be dry?
It’s perfectly okay for some water to be present in your sump pump pit. The sump pump is only triggered once the water reaches a certain level. The float switch is responsible for this and if you like to learn more about that you can read more about that in this article. So when there’s water in your pit but the sump pump isn’t on, this means that there’s either not enough water yet for your sump pump to turn on, or the float switch might be faulty.
No reason for concern just yet.
Other causes of a dripping sound in the sump pit
We’ve established that in most scenarios, it is the water coming in from the pipe that is connected to your drainage system that makes the dripping sound.
But there are other scenarios thinkable where the dripping noise has a different cause.
Sometimes it’s the weep hole that is secreting water. If it is in small quantities, this is no cause for concern, but it shouldn’t be spraying water excessively.
Another cause is a faulty check valve.
The check valve is the device that you’ll see connecting two pipes right above the weep hole. Its function is to allow water to flow in one direction (up) but not the other way (down).
When the check valve is broken, it may not execute this function properly anymore, and it’ll allow water to follow the course of gravity and fall back into the pipe. You’ll likely be able to tell if this is what’s happening. The dripping sounds muffled in the case, as it is contained by the discharge pipe. Visually, you should not be able to see circles forming in the standing water of your sump pump after each dripping sound.
If you’ve established this way that the check valve is the root of the problem, there’s two possibilities.
- Something is blocking the check valve
- The check valve needs to be replaced
In both situations, you’ll have to take that part of the piping apart to inspect the check valve.
If it turns out that the check valve is faulty, get a replacement for it. Otherwise, just clean it out and reinstall it.
How to fix the annoying dripping sound
While the sound of water falling into your pit is nothing to worry about in and of itself, it can be disturbing, especially when you’re often doing things in your basement.
Luckily, you can make a couple of easy changes to mitigate the sound, at the very least to a great extent.
The best fix is to make sure the water enters the basin at a sloped angle.
You can achieve this by simply installing a small pvc pipe which slopes down from the pipe where water enters your sump pit, to the bottom of the pit.
This way water will roll down, instead of falling, thus eliminating that vexing dripping sound.
Important:
Make sure the pvc pipe does not interfere with the float switch. If it does, your sump pump may not turn on or off. You don’t want that to happen.
Secondly, confirm that the pvc pipe is not blocking the water from entering your sump pump.
If you’ve installed the sloped pvc pipe and you’ve checked these two things you’ve now successfully mitigated the dripping sound coming from your sump pit!
I hope this article has reassured and helped you. Dripping sounds are nothing to worry about in most cases, but it is certainly good to check what causes it.
