Where Should I Plug in My Sump Pump? | A Leicester, MA Story

We recently serviced a sump pump for a customer in Leicester, MA who was seeing some lights coming on the sump. She was concerned something may be wrong. Our service specialist ensured our customer that the sump was working well, but he did recommend contacting an electrician because this sump was not plugged in properly. This got me to thinking about the right way to plug in a sump pump and why doing it right is pretty important.

Contact An Electrician for Your Basement 

When it comes to the right electrical setup for your sump pump we always recommend using an electrician's recommendations. We actually suggest this to our customers before we do our work as well as afterward in order for them to realize the importance of this matter. We are not electricians and proper electric is very important to your sump. A sump uses a lot of watts and we definitely want to be safe and of course we want to setup our sump for proper function and longevity. 

Where NOT to Plug in Your Sump

We recommend NOT plugging your sump or other like product into an extension cord. An extension cord is a great way to get electricity but only short term, this is not the best long-term solution because it can easily have an overload issue. A sump is not something you want shutting off because of plugging in too many things into the extension cord. Someone can also trip on an extension cord! Not to mention how many times extension cords get unplugged and relocated around the house (haha) without asking! 

It is also best to have the sump plugged into a circuit by itself just to ensure there isn't the potential for the outlet going out!

Last, we definitely think it is best although not required, to plug the sump into a circuit that is GFCI- which means ground fault circuit interrupter. This will shut off the outlet when it seems overloaded. A great thing but sometimes can be forgotten about and when we plug in multiple things it can be tripped. 

Be sure to contact us if your basement is in need of waterproofing including our sub floor drainage called WaterGuard as well as one of our incredible sump pumps!