20061105SumpPumpSiphon.wav

The sound that our sump pump makes in our basement. After losing power during one freezing rain storm, the basement started to flood up from the sump hole in the corner of the basement. After trying in vain with a hand pump to keep up with the flow, I had the bright idea to use garden hoses to set up a siphon. We live on a hill, and with three garden hoses I can get to a point on the street that is lower than the bottom of the sump pump hole. This worked well, so later I buried a small pipe along the route of the garden hose. So now, the sump pump is really only priming a siphon - the pump runs for about 20 seconds then switches off, and the siphon does the bulk of the "pumping". (During a power outage I prime it with a garden hose). What you're hearing is the sound of the siphon as the water level drops to the level of the pump outflow. It begins to suck a little bit of air, then huge gulps of air as the siphon action begins to end. The siphon is about 120 feet long and pulls water six feet vertically, so there is quite a lot of water pulling air into the pipe. The water trickling sound that you hear is water coming into the sump hole from the perforated pipe that encircles the house just outside the footing. If there is interest I can post the sound of the pump itself (which has switched off about 3 minutes before this recording starts). I imagine that someone who is skilled with their audio editor could make some great "monster" sounds from this.