Bad or Good Idea?

I need to relocate our washing machine to the basement, and am wondering about running the drain to the sump pump. It's convenient, but I'm not sure about how it would hold up to that kind of use. It almost never runs now. If I can't use it, I will have to cut the floor and run a drain about 20 feet to tie into another drain. What do you guys think?

My concern would not be an issue with the pump itself, but with the sump's ability to absorb a 5-gallon fast dump from the washing machine. I suspect it will overflow since sumps are designed to accept creeping groundwater, not the entire contents of a washing machine pumped out in 30 seconds.

and the soap. There is a lot of waxy crud in soap that can gum up your sump pump

No problem. Been doing it for 25 years.

Where is your sump pump dumping to?

My sump pump goes out into the backyard.

in SE MI, sumps are not supposed to discharge to the municipal water system, but many homeowners have plumbed their sump discharges into their residential wastewater line, to avoid having a soggy spot in their yard.

I have an ejector pit and a sump pump. The ejector pit receives the washer's discharge and gets pumped to the sewer. The pump is just a standard 'grey water' sump pump. It works fine. The sump pump goes to the yard.

I could talk sump pumps all morning.

If the problem was too much water too fast, I could install a basin for the water to go into first, and then to the sump. I suspect that is like what you are calling an ejector pit, Ross? I have to do some investigation to see where the sump pump takes the water. It doesn't dump it into the yard, but I'm not sure if it goes into storm drains or sewer. The pipes aren't that visible, so I have to look into that.
All in all it seems like it might be worth trying before going through the aggravation of running a drain under the floor. Thanks for the info, guys!

Datsun310Guy wrote: I could talk sump pumps all morning.

But yet you're not.

Is there a utility sink already hooked to the sewer that you can dump the water into?

When I used to clean new construction houses for a builder back in the late 1970's - the sump pump was the standard spot everyone peed into.

The 25# square cardboard nail box pushed back into the crawl space was always a bomb waiting for me.

This builder refused to order port-a-potties for the site - go to McDonalds.

You need to know where the discharge goes. If its just a rock pit you will quickly plug the soil and have a bigger problem. If it discharges to the storm sewer you could face expensive accusations of damaging riparian habitat. If it is the sanitary sewer(unlikely) then fire away.

You can go online and get your washing machine discharge specs and then look on the pump to see what it will handle. Easy to upsize it if need be. Just need gallons per minute for each.

Have the washer dump into a utility sink that is piped into an up-flush toilet which is connected to your normal sanitary line.

bravenrace wrote: If the problem was too much water too fast, I could install a basin for the water to go into first, and then to the sump. I suspect that is like what you are calling an ejector pit, Ross? I have to do some investigation to see where the sump pump takes the water. It doesn't dump it into the yard, but I'm not sure if it goes into storm drains or sewer. The pipes aren't that visible, so I have to look into that. All in all it seems like it might be worth trying before going through the aggravation of running a drain under the floor. Thanks for the info, guys!

There isn't any difference in the two systems really. The same size pits and the same size pumps. One gets only clothes washer water and gets pumped to the sanitary pipe. The other gets water from the drain tile and gets pumped to the surface of the backyard.

Okay, so the sump pump dumps into the storm drain. So my next question, since I don't have a manual for this clothes washer, is this - I have a sewer drain that runs across the ceiling of the room I'm wanting to put the washer in. Can a washing machine pump water up to the drain pipe, which is probably just under 7' above the floor?

In reply to Datsun1500:

Thanks. Can these pumps be purchased at a typical big box store?

Thanks, I think that's exactly what I need!