The good news is that we piped the discharge of the sump pump that runs all the time out a basement window and a good 50 or so feet away from the house. The bad news is that the extra pipe and lift made it even more obvious that the check valve is a piece-o-shit. So, now it’s running a lot more frequently, ‘cuz it goes uphill as it leaves the basement, where it went downhill before. There’s probably, oh, I dunno, 80 feet of 1½” pipe draining back in. Which, if I’m doing the math correctly, would be, what, about 6 gallons? About half a pit’s worth, I’d say. Now, it leaked before, of course, but there wasn’t as much pipe involved. So now it runs, oh, every two minutes instead of every five. I tried taking the check apart, cleaned it out, made sure it moved freely, and did get it to seat. But when I put it back together, it continued to leak. In fact, at first, I just put it in and tightened it loosely to see if it would miraculously now work perfectly, and I could tighten it up and toddle off to bed. This is the kind of idea you have when it’s getting late and you’re tired.

Whereas it’s just a plastic valve with slip couplings, as soon as the pump ran, it blew apart (I really know better – honest).

By the way, in case you didn’t know it, groundwater in this area during the month of March is slightly warmer than the temperature of snow. Which is to say, it’s really freakin’ cold. And wet. Oh, and GFCI outlet? Who needs one of those?

Of course, not only did the pipe blow apart, but the O-ring went, well, I had no idea where it went, other than to suppose that since I didn’t see it anywhere, it was probably in the pit. The rapidly-filling pit that’s really just a 2x3x3 (or something) foot hole chopped out of the cement floor full of water and sand and rocks (but mostly sand – and water) now all stirred up so that one can no longer see what’s an inch from the top, let alone at the bottom, with a 3-gallon bucket for the pump to sit in.

After fishing around in there for a while (did I mention the water is really frackin’ cold?), and holding the pipe together by hand while pumping things down a few times (in between scurrying frantically back and forth across the basement as the water rose, trying to locate a replacement that I knew damn well I didn’t have), I finally came up with both the O-ring and a seriously cold hand and forearm.

Oy. This is why I should never break my rule of not starting anything after 5PM.

So now I’m waiting for 6 o’clock AM to roll around so I can go buy a new check valve from the big box store, that I know will be no better than the one that’s in there, but am hoping will work better until the one I just ordered (that is supposedly a good one – we’ll see) gets here on Monday.

Here’s hoping the pump motor and/or switch last until I get back.

Last night wasn’t all bad, though I won’t mention why, as it involves a certain basketball team that nobody wants to hear about. And I wouldn’t want you to think my whole world revolves around that (not when there’s a lacrosse game tonight, after all).

Oh well, almost time to get out there and visit my friends at Home Depot (or Lowes – tough choice as they’re all Republican scumbags, but True Value doesn’t open ’til 7:30).

Have a nice day. And stay dry.