Anyone use a drain pump for their wet bar?

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max384

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I'm planning on building a bar in my basement this winter, and I think the most economical way to do the sink drain will be a drain pump. Has anyone else done this? If so, are you happy with it? Any recommendations on specific drain pumps? Anything that you'd do differently?
 
I assume you mean that you will have your drain lower than your waste line and need to pump it from a crock up & out to your existing drain line-correct?

I have something like that but it was already in the house when I bought it. One thing to maybe keep in mind is what's going down the drain & may sit in the crock for an extended period of time, IE yeast slurry. You may want to have easy access to the crock so it can be cleaned out or at least stirred back up to put the "solids" back into suspension so it can be pumped out. Might get a crazy experiment going on in there.

With that said, I haven't done anything like that yet for over a year. I do occasionally let bleach drain into the crock and let that set for some time. Before flushing it out by draining waste water that was left over from cleaning my brew system (mostly water & oxi clean).
 
Yes, that is what I mean. The waste line will be roughly 8' higher than my sink drain.

Thanks for the advice. This won't be used for my brewery, just the bar, so it should be mostly water and half-drank drinks.
 
Then it should be fairly straight forward.

Don't forget to install a good check valve, and make sure the crock is well sealed in case you have radon issues. I have a radon mitigation system only on my sump pump crock. Nothing on the sump for the brewery/bar area. But that crock appears to be well sealed.
 
The unit I purchased from home depot is a self contained unit and it had a built in check valve.

How much do these pumps cost, and how long do they last? Do they require a pit, or are they self contained? Just curious.

mine was $200 and self contained. It takes about 7 gallons to fill up before it pumps the water out, and it does it FAST. cant speak on how long they last as mine is still working.
 
If so, are you happy with it? Any recommendations on specific drain pumps? Anything that you'd do differently?

Depending on the amount of space you have they make pumps that screw on directly under the sink, or sit in a water tight box underneath. I have the later and I am happy with it, then again I needed a sink in my basement brewery and had no other choice to get the water out.
 
I have a pump that will immediately turn on as soon as the water hits it, no need to fill before it turns on. Just have to adjust the pump out flow rate so it is not turning on and off because it pumps too fast. Works great, a little loud, but it is only running for a few seconds at a time. Can pump out a full sink in under a minute with the flow set correctly, or a few seconds if it is opened right up.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005XOLC8W/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Not the exact on that I have, and I got mine for a little cheaper, but you get the idea.
 
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Thanks for the advice and personal experiences guys! I'll probably post back here once I actually start building the bar, and go to make the purchase.
 
I ended up using an Everbilt pump I purchased from the Home Depot. Usually I'm pretty diligent about reading reviews before buying, but I was there buying a bunch of stuff for my bar build and just picked it up. Unfortunately, it has pretty lousy reviews. So far, it works great for me... But I've also only had it installed for a few days.

Here's the one I have: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-0-25-HP-Pre-Plumbed-Sink-Tray-System-Sump-Pump-THD1035/205616019

Installed:
20161230_153754-X2.jpg


If anyone is interested, here's my bar build thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=596537

It's still an ongoing project. My bar is essentially finished, but I'm still working on my 8 tap through-the-wall tap system.

20161224_163806-X2.jpg
 
No wonder it has bad reviews, it has a giant hole in the side of it! ;) lol

I didn't even know these existed! I was all bummed out that I couldn't put a sink in the garage, looks like ill be doing some plumbing this next weekend!

Bar is coming along great! Keep up the good work!

Capture.PNG
 
No wonder it has bad reviews, it has a giant hole in the side of it! ;) lol

I didn't even know these existed! I was all bummed out that I couldn't put a sink in the garage, looks like ill be doing some plumbing this next weekend!

Bar is coming along great! Keep up the good work!

Awesome! Let us know how it goes!
 
For any of you guys that want a slightly more compact installation that doesn't require the sump check out a direct mount rig.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009T84WI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

For me it was more about space and venting than anything else. No vents required with a direct mount rig such as this. Quite discrete. I've been very happy with it.
 
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My pump, linked above works great. It had no problem getting rig of about 10 gallons dumped in pretty quickly. The only issue was the vent. I bought a small check valve vent for under sinks. With a lot of water at once it slowed the drain. Pretty simple work around though. I just unscrewed the vent and the water drained very quickly. I believe the vent works great when the pump turns on to avoid drawing a vacuum on the tank. But it doesn't let the air out when it is replaced with water.
 
Mine has a 6-7 gallon reservoir but I figured that by the time clean up was done there wouldn't be any beer/yeast left in the tank. Therefore little to no smell.
 
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