When the power goes out......

Alright I have an HOB oveflow that uses a plastic u peice to siphon water from the first to the second chamber. Now my question is if the power were to go out and come back on my overflow should start back up right away without me having to prime it correct?

 

I should but in some cases, air gets up into the U-tube and causes it to break it's siphon. But this is very rare. Air could only get into it if it is tampered with during the power outage.

 

+1

If its an extended period of power outage, evaporation would cause the siphon to break as well. When the power kicks off here due to the occasional idjit hitting a power pole, its been fine. The only time I've personally had the siphon break is during my setup period when I let the pump off for a week.

 

My advice would be to test it out, while you are in the house and can check it
unplug it , leave it for a while and plug back in to see what happens

better to find out while you can react, than for it to happen when your out of the house for a period and the power went out

 

Yea I'm definitely going to test it tomorrow. I just hope it works I hate primeing my overflow last time I did it I sucked on the tube for too long and got a nasty mouthfull of saltwater:-X but as long as both ends of the u peice are submerged I don't see why it wouldn't start up on its own.

 

I use a battery backup to keep power to my pumps. Won't help for the long outages, but is nice for the small ones.

 

As Steve said, there's only really one way to find out. Like you said--as long as both ends of the overflow tube are submerged (as is the case in a properly set up overflow), you'll be just fine.

This test is something you should do immediately after getting the whole system running. If the overflow doesn't restart itself after a power outage, that's a terrible accident waiting in the wings.

You might consider nipping it in the bud and getting this straight before you leave your house.