Switching electric pump on and off

[Max Power]

When I had my garden landscaped I had drainage put in and ran this to a soak-way.
Dug down about 4m and filled with about 10 tonne of gravel. Problem was that the soak-way filled up with water and didn't drain (the land is pure clay) so I installed a 400mm diameter drainage pipe vertically and put a pump in. I couldn't fit one of the pumps with a built in float as there isn't room inside the pipe for the float to operate.
When the soak-way fills I have to manually switch the pump on and the water runs away, the problem though is when I'm not there to switch it on the garden starts flooding.
Any ideas how I could rig it up to switch itself on and off ?

 

[jasonB]

There are plenty of separate float switches available, get one that has a vertically moving float and it won't take up the room that the "float on a wire" type fitted to sump pumps do.

Something like this may be easier to fit as it can be mounted at teh top of your 400mm tube

http://www.anchorpumps.com/stuart-turne ... tAod0V0AZw

J

 

[mind_the_goat]

Dig a another shallower hole and fit a length of 100mm pipe which would easily take a float switch, no need to plumb it in, it's just a housing for the switch. You could add a timer if you wanted to get the water level lower than the float.

 

[RogerS]

Curious to know how deep your 400mm pipe goes. I would have thought that water would rise up inside it to whatever level the water table was.

What happens when your pipe gets full as well as your soak-away?

I can but sympathise as we too are on clay. I gave up with French drains....pointless...I gave up with laying weed membrane on top of gravel etc....simply got blocked up as opposed to the gravel with clay left behind by the water. In the end, the sure-fire bullet-proof way was an open ditch....(slightly helped by being able to tap into a large land drain pipe that dropped away down the hillside and off off and away!).

 

[Harbo]

Where is the water actually out-falling to, the only real solution is to outfall to a proper drainage system which will need approvals?

Rod

 

[Max Power]

The water is pumped about 200 yds away into a burn which runs through my land

 

[Myfordman]

You can also use a capacitive proximity sensor. These can be screwed into a hole at the level you want the pump to switch on.
Either then run the pipe for a fixed time or then use a second sensor for the level to switch off the pump.
No moving parts to jam up or get slime growing round.

 

[Max Power]

Thanks for the replies.
Jason's option looks very viable, will look into that
The 400mm pipe goes down about 1,5 m Roger, I would have liked to have taken it further but that would have entailed digging out all of the gravel :shock:
When it rains the water from the land drainage runs into the gravel soak-way and flows into the pipe to the same level as the water table at which point I switch the pump on and the water gets sucked away along a pipe through some woodland I own and into a burn.
It works really well and keeps the garden from flooding, but it would be much better if it was automated and didn't rely on me being there to switch it on and off

 

[Max Power]

Thanks Myfordman, will look into that as well

 

[mind_the_goat]

Opps, 400mm, I thought you said 40mm. You should be able to install any standalone float switch in that.

 

[graduate_owner]

Isn't clay wonderful? I have to grow all my veg in raised beds about i foot deep else everything would just rot - everything except the weeds that is. The raised bed system works nicely though, with plenty of well rotted manure mixed in to the topsoil (what there is of it).
Nothing to do with draining your land or float switches - I just thought I'd post something.

However, in your situation, is there any possibility of having a ditch dug perhaps 18 inches deep, which could take a drainage pipe all the way to the burn. This could be covered in drainage stone and would do away with the need for a pump completely. Perhaps fit a grid at the start of the pipe which would stop large objects from entering and blocking the pipe. If the pipe started in an inspection chamber then you could get access to clean the grid of any blockages and for rodding if ever it became necessary (need lots of rods though - perhaps a few more judiciously-placed inspection chambers).
The last time I bought drainage pipe it was about £1.50 per metre for 100mm perforated.
Or could you perhaps save some pennies by leaving some of the ditch open? You would need to keep it from getting overgrown with vegetation though. Perhaps you could do the piping in stages as finances permit, or look around for second hand / offcuts and do the piping as these become available?

Or finally, you could change the landscaped garden into a !?@@#y lake

K