- HydroCheck HC6000v2 Sump Pump Float Switch: Hi-Lo Dual Sensors with Built-in Alarms | Energy-Saving, Maintenance-Free Solution to Prevent Flooding in Basements & Pools | USA-Made Reliability

Works great when you read the manual and follow the instructions! Included internal failure alarm in this switch worked great when I tested it separately. Loud enough to hear all over the basement. Nice feature. Simply attach a wire (not provided) from a known ground source. Existing copper cold water pipe in basement worked fine. Before using a 'suggested' grounding wire (see the manual), after initial installation, I tested the unit and it would not work properly. Grounding was an easy solution. After putting grounding wire into the sump and attaching other end to an existing grounded cold water pipe in basement, unit tested perfectly and has worked reliably for a few months, so far. DO NOT open any of your wall sockets to ground this unless you really know what you're doing!! It should NOT be necessary if you simply connect a non-provided grounding wire to an existing metal pipe, assuming that existing pipe is grounded. Contact a licensed electrician before opening up any live wall plates or connections anytime you have a basic home electrical issue! It's only common sense. I quickly got Excellent live advice from the manufacturer's help phone line (again, read the manual!). This new unit replaced an older unit from the same manufacturer which had worked seamlessly for 10 years or so. Decided to replace it with this updated unit when I replaced the old sump pump with a new one. Cheaper solutions are available, but went with this new one because of my good previous experience with the old switch. I learned the hard way (2 sump pumps ago) to NOT rely on sump pump internal float switches provided with most consumer sump pumps and have had no switch problems since I added external float switches. Not all of your old sump pumps may be easily controlled by an external switch. Some designs require you to bypass the original internal pump float switch without internal pump wiring changes. See the simple first test (below) and/or check with the manufacturer of your old sump pump to make sure before you go to the trouble of installing an add-on switch like this reviewed switch. You should be home free if your old pump installation has two separate electrical power wires which must be plugged in the wall: one for the actual pump and one for the internal pump switch. If so, unplug the old pump switch and substitute the new unit, into which you simply plug your old pump unit. If you have this existing sump setup, I'd pour sufficient water into the sump and separately plug in each of the existing wires to see if the pump starts up without a switch. If neither wire works, the pump might be dead or the breaker for that wall socket might be tripped. Don't bother buying a new switch for the old pump until you can determine the old pump still works. And even if it does work, seriously consider a new pump and switch if the old one has been in use for years. Most submerged machines don't last forever! You might save a few bucks when buying a new pump if buy a model with no internal float switch which will absolutely require an external switch like this reviewed unit. When trouble-shooting a non-working pump it's a lot easier to isolate a switch problem when you use an external add-on 'float' switch or if you have the ability to simply disconnect an internal original switch's plug and plug the separate pump switch into the wall to determine if the problem is the pump or the internal switch. Keeps you from throwing away an existing pump which still has usable life. But again, all machines wear out eventually. Like people. Pumps and switches don't last forever! Test your setup at least annually to try to avoid a very messy and expensive pump/switch failure! And an additional Backup battery pump can be excellent insurance, though even backups can fail. Good luck.

Over the years, the tethered float design has proven unreliable for me; I experienced a couple of failures that caused at least one flooded basement. (I now also have a battery back-up system.) Most recently, the float switch "on" position changed a bit higher, causing my backup pump to activate. Not sure why that float changed, but it did and it seemed erratic. From the beginning, it was very tricky to install the old tethered float so that it would not touch walls of the sump or anything and to adjust it to activate i.e. turn on and off where it should. Then comes this product...what a relief! I definitely recommend the additional few dollars for the sensor installation kit; https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L425Z83?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details BTW, in my system, I do not need to add a ground wire. Works perfectly without. Recommend that you test the system and only add the ground wire if it does not activate and shut off properly. Mine's working perfectly without it. Easy to install - I tie-wrapped the old teathered switch to the pump (up, so it was always ON, and then installed this electronic sensor system. I am now able to very easily adjust the heigth of the "ON" sensor; Just loosen a hose clamp a bit and can precicely adjust the height of the sensor pcv pipe the sensors are mounted on. Takes up much less room in the sump than a teatherd float switch which is important to me as I also have a backup battery system installed in the sump. Watched the operation of the new sensor and it is precise and accurate and appears reliable (no moving parts). Wish I had installed this from the beginning years ago! UPDATE 10/25/2023: IGNORE THE GUY WHO INSTALLED A RED PIPE FOR THE UPPER SENSOR ONLY. THAT DOES NOTHING TO PREVENT A STRAY GROUND FROM CAUSING THE LOWER SENSOR TO MALFUNCTION AND COULD RESULT IN THE PUMP NOT SHUTTING OFF!!!! THIS RED PIPE ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING! THAT GUY HAS NO CLUE!!! Again, I recommend that you buy and install the kit I mentioned above to install the sensors, insulating them from the drain pipe and the rest of the system. and prevent a stray ground problem in the future. It's only $10 and I think you can also get it bundled with the sensors for only $5 more.

Hands down the best sump pump switch on the market. If you have an active sump pump during wet periods, or high ground water levels in the area like I do, this is the answer. You can adjust the on/off position to your liking or needs, change it with the season, snow melt, rain levels, etc. A fixed mechanical switch offers none of the flexibility and reliability of this switch. I have a pretty broad throw in our pit - the distance between on and off is about 8" when it's wet out. We live in a part of town where the ground water levels rise with heavy rain and we just had 2 bad storms with very heavy rain producing about 8" of rain for the week. I had the off switch lower due to very dry weather previously but that caused the pump to run too much when the rains came, so I just went down and tweaked it. Perfect. Now we have longer run times with wider gaps between - MUCH better for the pump life as well as short-cycling kills pumps. If your sump pump is at all active, if you get tired of hearing it run too often or if it's starting and not removing enough water per run, THIS IS THE ANSWER. I just bought a new one, my last one was 7 years old with (guesstimating) 600,000 to 700,000 cycles. It still worked perfectly. When I proactively replaced the sump pump (Zoeller N98 1/2HP is the way to go IMO) I proactively replaced the switch. I kept the old switch and pump as backup, just in case. You never know. As an aside, the customer service from Stak is excellent. I've called them with questions and they are very responsive. One issue I will forewarn you about if you DO buy one, keep the switches away from the vent hole stream, if you have one drilled in the head pipe. If the pump runs too long, interference from the stream is likely the culprit. I have 7 1/2 years experience using this thing, so I know a bit what I'm talking about. It's well worth the money. No float to jam up. Reliable operation. I've directed a number of friends to these, and every one has loved it.

This is a great sump pump controller. Very well thought out and designed. It's a much better solution than a float switch, and combined with a quality pump will be very reliable. Being able to adjust the on and off points to just where you want them means you can avoid short cycling and extend your pump life, so it probably saves you money to buy this thing. I had a small difficulty - entirely my own doing - and the service I received was amazing. I got a quick response and help getting everything working just right from a real person, in the US, who knew the product like he had designed it himself. This isn't to say you are likely to need help, it's simple and dependable.

Setup was easy and worked perfectly, the only thing keeping away a 5 star review was the cheap wire ties supplied in the package....Do Not Use them! Everyone of them broke when tightening so fortunately I had some of my own wire ties.

I've been using these for years. Great product.

Our house has two sump pump pits and is located in a high water table area, which means our sump pumps run every couple moments as opposed to most peoples which might only run once a week or once a month. In our household Sump Pumps are a serious concern to keeping the basement water free. We have a finished basement and in the last 4 years since the house was built we have lost 3 basements to flooding from the sump pumps not being able to keep up so we have researched our options on a regular basis. We now are running dual commercial fountain pumps which are built to run 24 hours a day and pump out more than 15,000 gallons of water per hour per pump, we have used the ball floats which just have disappointed us, the single unit electronic floats are tall and work except you must pull them out of the sump pit every couple weeks and completely clean them off from the build up of calcium which the sensor will misread as water and allow the pumps to run forever without water till they burn up, but these HC6000 units have been totally amazing and works flawlessly. My only regret is not finding this product and buying it sooner. This system allows you to determine where the water line should be before the pump kicks on and where the water line should be for the pump to stop. This is very helpful depending on how large of a pit you have installed, you have the ability to dictate the on and off levels. The traditional floats or electronic sensors do not give you this flexibility, it is preset when they kick on and off. These units were incredibly easy to install and gives you peace of mind once they are operating. I have reservations about these units working for our setup since we are using sump pumps that are 4 times or more larger than a traditional pump and thus absorbing more electricity to run, I was afraid that these units would not be built to maintain that kind of power through them but I was assured by my research that it would work and It does indeed work well. The only issue that I had with this product after installation was every time the pumps were activated the HC6000 would start alarming a set of very large tones, after reading the instructions and finding out that those tones represent high power consumption which is a sign of a sump pump going out (not in our case of course) I was able to disable the alarms and have not heard them since. I would recommend this product to everyone!

Existing sump pump would sometimes fail to turn on as switch somehow gets wedged or tangled up. It’s fine 99% of the time except when it doesn’t and now the basement is flooded. Happened to me twice in the last 10 years; objectively that’s not a bad run and fail rate but try telling yourself that when mopping and cleaning. This is a much more accurate setup, instead of relying on float trigger, controls via low and high set points. Takes a few more minutes to measure and zip tie the sensors on but once it’s done it’s so much more precise and takes the worry out of anything getting stuck. Theres also a handy test switch to manually turn on. Probes are simple current sensors so failure rate should be lower than a float switch getting stuck. Happy with overall install.

Works great.... nice to have the alarms as well

This thing is a game changer. The HydroCheck HC6000v2 keeps the area around my pool dry without me even lifting a finger. It runs exactly when it should and shuts off just as reliably. I paired it with a utility pump, and now I don’t have to babysit anything—it just works. Installation was easy, and the dual float switch gives me peace of mind. It's been working flawlessly since day one. If you’re tired of manually managing water around your pool, this is a must-have!

Excellent product, with great features. I put this on an older Zoeller M53 which switch's died (a common occurence) and it works great. - Works fine without a ground (in my case) - Adjustable high and low level - High level alarm - No pump current alarm - Manual operation A few things could be improved: - The alarm sound level is a bit weak, it's possible it won't be heard in a basement and/or closed pit. - The design of the probe attachment could be better, for example by allowing a plumbing collar rather than just a tie-wrap. Something similar to the Liberty SJ10 attachment comes to mind for example.

Works exactly as described

These electrodes were super easy to install and work great. Going to be much better than the old float switch that came with the pump.