Found out my sump pump was running every 2 minutes in Lethbridge

Checked the basement last week and heard the pump kicking on way too often. I counted 14 cycles in half an hour. Turns out the discharge line outside had frozen solid from the cold snap. Water was just recirculating back through the weep hole. Spent a Saturday digging it out and adding heat tape, cost about $60 at Home Depot. The pump now runs maybe 3 times a day. I never thought to check the outside line before. Has anyone else dealt with frozen discharge pipes here, and did you switch to a different setup?

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ben_chen72d ago

Heat tape is the way to go, that same thing happened to me two winters ago and it drove me crazy until I figured it out. Digging out the line and wrapping the first few feet of pipe is all you really need, anything past that just melts the snow and keeps the ground warm. Some guys I know swear by burying the line deeper with insulation, but for $60 the tape is the cheapest fix that actually works here.