507 Basement Sentry question

[TequilaMB]

My 507 Basement Sentry system alarm went off today. We'd had a main pump failure yesterday (but caught it early enough that the battery backup unit had not kicked in). The charging light on the 507 was yellow, but the alarm still would not go off hitting the reset button. I discovered that the unit had inadvertently been unplugged from the A/C power overnight. I checked water level, it was low, so I refilled it. Plugged it back in, then it started flashing yellow/green yellow/green, but it would not stop squealing until I unplugged the unit from the A/C power again, and then removed the connection from the negative terminal on the battery. Would this indicate the battery is dead, or just that it needed refilling? Tried calling Zoeller, but they're not open on Saturday. How does one go about "having the battery checked"?

 

[Reach4]

I would have added distilled water until the liquid was just a little above the plates. The reason is that I think the level will rise as it charges. On at least some of their batteries, there is a sensor to see if the electrolyte is high enough. Your model may not do that.

I would plug the unit back in, and hold the alarm reset button in longer than 3 seconds in an attempt to silence the alarm. Maybe it will charge. You can check the terminal voltage to get a clue as to what is happening.

I don't know what the blinking means.

You could try charging that battery on a different low rate charger. Measure the voltage across the battery terminals while charging. The voltage while charging would be something above 13.8 volts.

For testing, charge the battery completely, and take it to an auto parts store. Tell them it is a deep discharge battery, and ask if they will try it on their tester.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[LLigetfa]

How old is the battery? How low did the electrolyte get before you topped it up? As reach4 said, a good auto or marine battery place could test and possibly rejuvenate the battery if not too far gone. Here is a good site for battery info.
https://www.progressivedyn.com/service/battery-basics/

 

[TequilaMB]

All I have to do it touch the black wire to the negative terminal, and she starts screaming again. Not sure how low the water level was, but we couldn't see it. Maybe we overfilled it? My hubby usually does that, and he wasn't around, so my son and I had to tackle it alone. Can't charge it if the alarm won't shut up. Might have to take it to an auto parts store on Monday.

 

[Reach4]

All I have to do it touch the black wire to the negative terminal, and she starts screaming again.

Did you try to silence it by holding in the alarm reset button?

 

[Cacher_Chick]

The battery is only good for about 3 years if you maintain the water level. Once the water has been low, all bets are off.

The alarm is set up to go off any time the voltage drops lower than a normal fully charged good battery.

 

[TequilaMB]

Tried holding the reset button in several times. Nothing. I guess we got a good run out of this battery - it's 5 1/2 years old! Time for a new one.

 

[TequilaMB]

Can anyone suggest an actual replacement battery? The one we have is Size 27 (according to the info on the top), but I haven't been able to get it out of the case to see any other specs. I've looked up the Aquanot battery and the price is breath-taking.

 

[Reach4]

You might look at a basement watchdog battery. I think at least some of them come with the acid electrolyte separate. You could have a spare on the shelf for years dry. Then add the acid, and you have a fully charged battery.

 

[Valveman]

Moving to plumbing forum. More expertise there with sump pumps.

 

[Nat DC]

Hello,
I also have a basement sentry 507 charger on our battery backup pump in our basement that we've also been getting occasional alarms from recently. Both the main pump and backup pump function fine if I trip the floats, but I think occasionally during normal operation the float on the main pump gets stuck and the backup pump ends up kicking in (I've only witnessed this situation once). Every 2-3 weeks the alarm on the 507 goes off, but it turns off when I hit the reset button and the indicator light goes back to green. I replaced the battery about 4 months ago and have done nothing to it after connecting it. I don't know a ton about marine batteries and the rep at the store told me it was already charged and that I didn't need to do anything other than connect it. The battery we have is linked below. This seems to happen only during rainy periods, but the system works pretty constantly as our a/c and dehumidifier both drain into the sump. But, it's rained more days than not here over the past few months so maybe the correlation with rainy days doesn't really mean anything.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...5-P?navigationPath=L1*14920|L2*15000|L3*15601

Does anyone have any thoughts about why the alarm might be going off and what I need to do to address it?

Thanks,
Nat

 

[Cacher_Chick]

It sounds quite intermittent, so it might be hard to catch it in the act. Best to start by double-checking all of the connections. A voltmeter will be needed to see if the charger is working and that the battery is taking a charge.

 

[Nat DC]

I spent some more time reading manuals and troubleshooting our pump last night and am fairly certain that the cause of the alarm is that the float on the primary pump is not reliably tripping the switch. When that happens and the backup pump kicks on that sets off the alarm to let us know the main pump has failed. So, I'm now looking at options for how to address this. We currently have a Zoeller pump that I would estimate is at least 8 years old. Is it worth trying to replace the switch or should we just look at replacing the whole pump? I'm thinking that replacing the whole thing is something I wouldn't have too much trouble doing myself, am I right that it won't be too complicated? Thank you

 

[Cacher_Chick]

Which switch are you using with the Zoeller pump? You can rebuild the factory switch, or you can bypass it and use an external switch with a piggy-back plug.