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How to Replace a Sewage Pump Check Valve – Part 2

Bob Jackson
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by Bob Jackson

Sanitize and open the sewage basin, disconnect the old check valve and pull the sewage pump.

This project is continued from Part 1.

How to Replace a Sewage Pump Check Valve

The basement bathroom sewage basin will have to be opened and the sewage pump removed to replace the water hammering sewage check valve. I haven’t opened the sewage basin since I finished the basement bathroom 3 years ago and was uncertain of what I’d find. To minimize odors and bacteria, I poured 1/2 gallon of laundry bleach down the basement toilet and ran the basement shower until the sewage pump had cycled 5 times. I figured 5 pump cycles should be sufficient to purge any nasties from the sewage basin and 12 feet of vertical sewage pipe.

Open the Basement Sewage Basin

The sewage pump electrical cord is unplugged from the wall outlet and the family is alerted not to use the basement bathroom.

Next, the ball stop valve is turned to the OFF position to prevent the 12 feet of waste water in the 2 inch PVC pipe from back flowing when I remove the check valve. This is a combo check valve and ball stop valve.

Basement Bathroom Sewage Check Valve: Ball Stop Valve in Off Position
Basement Bathroom Sewage Check Valve: Ball Stop Valve in Off Position

The PVC Union on the sewage basin air vent pipe running up to the roof vent is unscrewed to pull the vent pipe out of the basin cover:

Basement Bathroom: Disconnect the Sewage Basin Air Vent Pipe

View of the basement bathroom sewage basin and PVC plumbing for overall context:

Basement Bathroom: Sewage Basin and Air Vent Pipe

The bolts are removed from the two halves of the sewage basin cover. The forward cover section is set aside out of the way. The rear half of the sewage basin cover is wiggled up the PVC pipe to allow room to maneuver the pump and stand pipe. The union nut unscrewed from the bottom of the check valve to separate the lower section of PVC pipe from the check valve. The wastewater in the lower section of PVC pipe will backflow into the sewage basin as the union nut is loosened, breaking the watertight seal allowing air to flow in.

Basement Bathroom: Sewage Basin Cover Opened and Check Valve Disconnect

As you can see in the above photo, the union nut is captive between the metal basin cover and the solvent weld union fitting on the 2 inch Schedule 40 PVC pipe. The solvent weld union fitting will have be sawed off.

In this next photo, I’ve sawed the solvent weld fitting off the sewage pump stand pipe. This is a demolition job and the lower ~4 foot section of PVC pipe in the sewage basin will be replaced.

Basement Bathroom Sewage Check Valve Replacement

Basement Bathroom: Remove the Sewage Pump

The main sewage basin cover is wiggled off the sewage pump stand pipe and set aside revealing the sewage basin. Ah – breath deep! Actually there was only mild dank odor. The bleach I poured down the toilet and cycling the pump several times appears to have a done the job! While it’s difficult to see in the photos, the 3/4 HP Liberty LE71A sewage pump has done a great a job evacuating the sewage basin and there almost no sediment on the bottom of the pit.

Basement Bathroom: Opening the Sewage Basin to Pull the Sewage Pump

I put on a pair of disposal latex gloves, reached in and removed the 60 lb pump out of the sewage basin:

Basement Bathroom: Sewage Ejection Pump Removal

I was initially concerned by the large patch of blister rust on the sewage pump. I poked the rust with a screw driver in several places and found that it was just a cosmetic surface issue. The heavy cast iron pump body was intact beneath the puffy layers of rust and paint. I chose not to scrape off the rust because I didn’t want to make a mess on the cement floor.

Basement Bathroom: 3 year old Liberty Pump Model LE71A1

This project is continued in Part 3.

Take care,

Bob Jackson

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Bob Jackson
Bob Jackson
Technology product manager by day and a prolific handyman in the evenings and over the weekends. Bob was the founder of the original Handyman How To website and that tradition continues on this site with excellent new handyman content into the future.
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