Protecting your basement from flooding and water damage is serious business. If flooding occurs, your homes foundation could be a risk, mold and mildews can start to grow unless the problem is taken care of immediately, and your furniture and belonging will most likely be ruined. Take if from an expert, water damage is not a fun experience and you'll want to do everything in your power to prevent it from happening. Luckily, there are several types of sump pumps on the market, one being a water powered sump pumps.

How Does a Water Powered Sump Pump Work

Thanks for the Venturi effect, a water powered sump pump is possible. When a house hooks up to a city's water system, they can leverages the different water pressures to work create a suction and remove water from a basement.

When city water moves through a smaller portion of it's standard pipe, it accelerates up causing a reduction in water pressure. This reduction in pressure creates a suction and can remove water from your basement's discharge line.

Advantages of a Water Powered Sump Pumps

One primary advantage of a water powered sump pump is that it doesn't require power.

Electric sump pump can fail for a number of reasons:

A severe storm could result in a power outage
Dirt or debris can block the sump pumps working parts
A blown fuse or tripped circuit breaker occur
A sump pump float switch could become tangled and fail to turn the pump on
And much more.

Another advantage of a water powered sump pump is that it does not contain any working parts.

Most water powered sump pumps don't require any special plumbing knowledge or special tools for installation. You can always learn how to install a sump pump, however, if you're not comfortable with the process then hire a home contractor to install it for you. You'll feel better having a professionals assistance in knowing the job was done right.

Disadvantages of a Water Powered Sump Pumps

A disadvantage of a water powered sump pump is that it requires city water. If for some reason the city water shuts down, so does your sump pump.

Also, it's not as environmentally safe to have water from your basement flow into the city's drainage system. If any spilt oils, battery acid, or chemicals from your basement get dumped into the city's drainage system, there can be serious environmental hazards.

Another disadvantage of a water powered sump pump is the cost of operation over any given period of time is significantly more than that of an electric sump pump.

Overall, we would recommend a standard electric sump pump as your primary and a water powered sump pump as a back up.