I had to size pipe for natural gas on a regular basis, so I’m quite familiar with flow rates and pressure drops due to pipe lengths. 3” pipe would have probably been OK for this application, but as you mentioned, it’s cheap and easy to over engineer, not to mention far better when it might make the difference between having an indoor swimming pool or not.
There’s a PS to this story, too. The people who bought the house from us put an in-ground swimming pool in (the kiss of death, this was Indianapolis!) and in doing so, bisected the line between the sump and catch basin. Neighbors told us they saw the contractor dig it up and pull it out, not knowing what it was. They said it didn’t appear that they repaired or replaced it. Pretty exciting for them when the rainy season started in the spring. I’m wondering if the basement flooded (again.) Dan > On Oct 11, 2016, at 2:56 PM, fmiser via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > wrote: > >> Dan wrote: >> >> Your setup would work, but I would definitely size the combined >> outlet pipe for the total volume of both pumps. > > I agree. Also consider the "resistance" of the pipe, more so the > longer the pipe is. > >> In my former house in Indiana I had dual sumps, both with >> submersible pumps that went into a 2” PVC “Y”, up roughly 10’ and >> out the side of the foundation at ground level. > >> If both pumps went off at the same time, which was certainly >> possible during times of heavy rains, there was no way both could >> push their combined rated capacity out through the 2” pipe. What >> the original builder/plumber should have done was to increase the >> size of the pipe from 2” to at least 4” at the outlet of the “Y” >> and continued out and down to the catch basin with 4” pipe. > > For what it's worth, a 3" pipe has more than twice the flow > capacity of a 2" pipe. > >> This setup had a double whammy - the volume of the pumps exceeded >> the capacity of the 2” pipe, AND, the 150’ run of pipe from the >> house to the catch basin couldn’t handle the capacity of both >> pumps due to the restriction it presented. > > Was it adequate for just one? If so, then a 3" pipe would be > sufficient. But if it were my house that would be getting all wet, > I would oversizes, overbuild, and over-engineer. *grin* > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
