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You can use any deep cycle marine battery, as long as it is not maintenance-free, to power the backup. Yet another note: Battery acid is often sold in metric units, this battery requires 6 quarts which would require approximately 8 of the 750 ml packages of acid to fill the Basement Watchdog battery. There is an alternative to this, however. Others say it’s still going strong after 7 years but those are the minority. Some report that the battery lasts 1 to 3 years and then it fails, not good when the warranty is only for a year. It does not seem to last as long as advertised and you are required to buy the acid at a battery retailer and fill it yourself. The one inconvenience with this pump is the fact that the battery is sold separate and the one that is recommended (the 30HDC140S Basement Watchdog Back-Up Sump Pump Battery) seems, by most accounts, unreliable. Took three weeks to get a replacement part.” Battery Not Included “One of the parts was broken upon receipt. I called up the manufacturer’s technical support and they overnight FedEx-ed me replacement floats at no charge! Wonderful customer service!”
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“When the cleanup crew came, they knocked a piece of their equipment into the sump pit, smashing the pit cover and destroying both float switches (both the primary and the battery back-up). Here are two instances of dealing with customer service: In terms of customer and technical support, the company seems to provide above par service, usually.
#Watch dog pumps manual#
I don’t know if this information is not included in the manual or if people simply overlook it, but it’s on the Basement Watchdog FAQ.
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There is one issue I’ve come across during my research on this model and that is the fact that people are not aware that you have to drill a 1/8” hole in the PVC pipe about 3” above the pump for the pressure to work correctly. I’d think the opposite with all the bells and whistles it has, but that’s not the case. It seems opinions across the board are that it’s a pretty easy install.
#Watch dog pumps how to#
You’ll rarely find anyone saying the Basement Watchdog manuals are lacking in information or they couldn’t figure out how to install it. This is pretty handy and will not leave you guessing what the heck is wrong with your pump and make fixing an issue easier to pinpoint and get your pump up and running again. This setup is very helpful for maintaining the product. Should there be any sort of issue you will be alerted with an audible alarm and a light on the control panel will indicate the cause and the course of action you will need to take to remedy the issue. The Basement Watchdog DFK-961 has a LED monitoring system in place. In any case, I have a pump by that manufacturer and it worked successfully even through a 36-hour power outage coupled with heavy rain, so I'm pretty happy with it.Check Reviews & Price On Amazon Controls and Indicators It would have been helpful IMHO if the unit had included probes for all six batteries and provided a means of reading their status, so as to make it easier to fill the batteries uniformly (otherwise it's hard to judge the fluid levels in them), but perhaps some other means of viewing fluid levels could have been usable. The probe only senses the level in one of the batteries, but if the batteries are all filled to the same level, they will generally lose water at the same rate. Note that a 12V battery consists of six independent two-volt batteries, each of which must be serviced separately. If the charging box doesn't see that connection, it will flag a warning. The probe is a thin metal rod that sticks through a special hole in the top of the battery the hole is placed so as to ensure that the rod does not touch the plates in the battery (having a metal rod touch the plates could be spectacularly bad, so this feature should only be used on batteries that are designed for it), but the tip of the probe will sit in the acid solution the acid is a good enough conductor that if it reaches the height of the probe it will effectively connect the probe to one of the battery terminals. The unit in question has two large current-carrying wires which connect to the positive and negative terminals of the battery, and a sense wire which is designed to connect to a probe supplied with batteries manufactured by the same company.