Around seven to ten years for a pump that runs occasionally, and considerably less for one that runs continuously through a wet season. Duty cycle is what decides it, not age. The pump that fails is almost always the one nobody has tested since it was installed.

How hard a pump works here

The middle home in Layton was built in 1993, and the shallowest mapped seasonal water table sits 29.9 inches down. Housing of that period is now old enough to be on its second pump, and a table at that depth means most pumps here are cycling after storms rather than running continuously — which puts them at the longer end of the range. The switch is still what fails first, and a bucket of water tests it in two minutes.

The reasoning behind that

A sump pump is a motor, a switch and an impeller. The switch usually goes first, and a switch that has stopped working looks identical to a pump that has nothing to do.

Duty cycle is the variable. A pump cycling a few times after a storm will outlast a pump running most of the day for six weeks every spring by years. Where a pump runs hard seasonally, plan on the shorter end of the range.

Testing takes two minutes: pour a bucket of water into the pit and watch it start, run and stop. Do it before the wet season rather than during it.

Two things extend the life meaningfully. A pit lid keeps debris out of the impeller. A check valve stops the column of water in the discharge line falling back into the pit and making the pump lift the same water twice on every cycle.

A battery backup is not about lifespan. It is about the storm that causes the power cut.

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