But an ejector deals with sewage – including waste from the toilet. Now even if the sewer becomes overwhelmed it’s much harder for that sewer water to back up into the house.Ī sump pump just needs a simple cover to keep out debris and to reduce the chance of the water evaporating into the house. The house’s main plumbing drain pipe leaves through the basement floor, and all the drain water from sinks, toilets, and tubs drain by gravity out to the sewer in the street. Here’s what it looks like, with a typical basement and the sewer line out in the street. These cities use the same large sewer pipes to handle rain water and to handle the drain from your house (from sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets). In Chicago and most of the older suburbs we have combined storm and sanitary sewers. An ejector deals with drain water from the house’s plumbing system, helping to get it out of the house. So ground water that’s trying to attack your house and ruin your basement instead runs into the sump and is pumped safely away.Īn ejector has a completely different purpose. When the sump fills with water an automatic valve turns on the pump and pumps that water away, usually discharging outside of the house but sometimes discharging directly into a sewer line inside the house. Ground water trying to attack the foundation finds its way into the sump.Īt the bottom of the sump is a pump. This drain pipe is perforated so that water in the ground will leak into the pipe and wind up in the sump. Usually – but not always – there is also some buried drain pipe (usually called drain tile) running around the perimeter of the house and discharging into the sump. This is the point of a sump pump.Ī sump is a pit dug at the lowest point of the house that gives water a place to go and collect before it can come through the foundation wall or through the floor slab. Or, you can give water a place to go where it can be controlled and won’t do any harm. That’s actually not very easy – water will find a way, especially through an underground foundation that you don’t have access to for maintenance. You can try to block water out completely and not allow it to get anywhere it’s not supposed to be. And there are a couple of ways to deal with water. There’s a lot of water in the ground (of course – that’s why plants have their roots there!) and if any part of a house is below ground then that water wants to try to leak into the house. This blog posts describes the purpose of each of these devices and explains some of the differences. Many houses have a sump pump, and most newer houses (and some older houses) have an ejector pump.
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